By Katie Zigelman, News Staff
Graduated senior Jonathon Hall won the 400-meter hurdles event at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship track and field meet last weekend for the second time in his career. He ran the event in a time of 51.65 seconds, beating his personal record and getting the second-best time in school history. He also contributed to the 4×400 relay team’s victory at the meet.
His performance earned him Huntington News Player of the Week honors.
Hall won the 400-meter hurdles event at the CAA championship meet in 2009, but not without complications.
During the first race, the timing system malfunctioned, and there was a three-way tie between the runners. Once the timing system was working correctly again the athletes re-ran the race, and Hall won by a much larger margin.
“The win this year was more outright, the last win was more complicated,” Hall said. “But, I broke my personal record in both scenarios and was happy either way.”
Hall did not compete with the Northeastern team during the 2009-10 season as he redshirted, and he also sprained his ankle during the outdoor season but continued to train with the team and compete in meets unattached.
Hall is also one of three team captains for the men’s team. As a captain, Hall sometimes co-hosts dinners for the team, talks to the younger athletes and leads practices when necessary.
“My biggest role is to lead by example,” Hall said.
Hall first began participating in track and field as a 9-year old, but became serious about it in high school. He also played little league baseball and soccer, as his parents always encouraged sports.
He is not the only track star in his family. In fact, his parents now coach, and his sister, Cecelia, set the triple-jump record At Lehigh University of 38 feet, 3 inches at Lehigh University. Hall said that having his family involved in track is fun.
“One of my fondest memories growing up was going to see [my sister’s] indoor meets,” Hall said.
The North Bellmore, N.Y., native is now a Northeastern alumnus, but he still has some major meets to focus on. This weekend, he will compete in the New England Championships and after that he is competing in the NCAA regional championship meet.
“We are a more dominant New England team,” Hall said. “I am more excited about NCAA as it is a bigger meet but I’m more nervous too.”
Hall earned a sociology degree at Northeastern last week with three minors: business, psychology and women’s studies. He said he is hoping to get involved in collegiate coaching as an assistant coach once he is done with the track season.
Hall spends the majority of his time eating, going to class and practicing.
“I like to cook and hang out with my friends,” Hall said. “There is a lot of cooking that happens in our apartment.”
As Hall’s time at Northeastern is coming to an end, he said that he is glad he chose this school.
“I am very happy with Northeastern,” Hall said.
