By: Katie Zigelman, News Staff
The men’s track & field team outscored every other team in the Battle of Beantown – the track version of the Beanpot, while sophomore Jillena DeCarteret led the women’s team with her record-breaking pole vault performance.
The men’s team beat Boston University, who scored a total of 158 points, by just one point. Harvard came in third with 131 points and Boston College took fourth place with 60 points. The women’s team’s 95 points put them in fourth place, behind Harvard (191 points), BU (116 points) and BC (104 points).
Senior Andrew Staples led the men with a first-place finish in the high jump, jumping 6 feet, 7 inches. In the long jump, freshman teammate Kaylin Miranda broke the meet record and jumped 24 feet, 1.75 inches for his fourth win of the season while Staples jumped 23 feet, 6.75 inches.
“It feels pretty good, especially in this meet,” Staples said. “We beat BU by one point so every point counted.”
The 4×880-yard relay team, consisting of Junior Evan Whetsell and freshmen Brian Doyle, Andrew Snyder and Eric Jenkins, won with a time of 7:45.82.
Senior Brian Racca also had a first-place performance in the triple jump with a distance of 46 feet, 10.75 inches. The team had a couple of second-place finishes including Jenkins, who completed the 1000-meter run with a time of 2:28.25, and senior Adrian Li who also hit 6 feet, 7 inches in the high jump, but took second-place behind Staples after tie-breaking jumps.
Head coach Sherman Hart said he is proud of the men’s team’s undefeated status, but the team must continue to focus on the matchups that lie ahead of them.
“It’s more of a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ situation,” he said. “They did great Saturday and Sunday, but it’s back to business on Monday. I’m not usually an early starter and this is on them, they’ve done well. This is a very young and enthusiastic team.”
For the women’s team, DeCarteret came in first place in the pole vault with a height of 12 feet, 5.5 inches. This height tied for the second-best vault in Northeastern indoor history.
“It was exciting because I had a lull at the start of the season last year where I was not really getting better,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting to be starting this season with record-breaking performances.”
Hart said he is very proud with how Decarteret is developing and improving this season.
“She has more confidence as a sophomore and can go higher still,” Hart said. “Some people need the time to adjust during their freshman year and Jillena seems all adjusted this year. I’m really happy for her but we are still looking for bigger and better things.”
Senior Althea Charles also had a first-place performance in the weight throw with a distance of 55 feet, 6.25 inches for the second week in a row. Junior Saleena Abdur-Rashed finished second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.66.
Yet despite these top finishes, the women’s team came in fourth out of the four teams competing in the tournament.
“Four out of our five top athletes were out hurt this weekend and the flu is going around the women’s team like water coming out of faucets,” Hart said. “In situations like this you have to deal with what you’ve got.”
Decarteret said despite the loss, she was happy with the way her teammates performed.
“Those who did compete did well,” she said. “We were just struggling to get the points we needed with people out.”
Both teams will compete again tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Valentine Invitational, sponsored by BU.
