By Katie Zigelman, News Staff
Senior Jonathon Hall and freshman Eric Jenkins had the only individual victories for the men’s track team team, contributing to its highest finish in school history at the Colonial Athletic Association championship.
The Huskies finished third with 125.5 points, as George Mason University won the meet with 239 total points, and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington finished second with 143.5 points.
“I’m never happy if we don’t win, but the teams did well,” head coach Sherman Hart said. “A couple of athletes were hurting, but it’s championships so [they still wanted to compete].”
Hall came in first in the 400-meter hurdles with the second-best time in Northeastern history, 51.65 seconds. He said the meet went well for him and he was happy with the way the team performed. Hall also won this event in the 2009 CAA championship meet.
“We had some good performances and some that could have been better, but overall we were all content with third place,” said junior Andrew Staples, who finished second in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 8.25 inches.
Staples said he is satisfied with his second place finish, but not thrilled with his distance. He also finished second in the long jump at last year’s CAA championship meet.
Hall was also a part of the men’s 4×400-meter relay team, which was victorious as well. Freshman Alex Shapiro, junior Evan Whetsell and sophomore Kaylin Miranda ran the event in 3:15.99. This was the first Northeastern relay team to win this event at the CAA championship meet.
Jenkins won the 5,000 meter run by stopping the clock at 14:27.04.
Senior Patrick Jablonski earned 16 points for his team by finishing second in both the shot put and the discus throw. He threw the shot put 53 feet, 8.09 inches and the discus 160 feet, 4.8 inches.
Senior Adrian Li competed in this meet after being out with an injury for almost the entire season. He jumped over 6 feet, 6.34 inches for a third place finish in the high jump.
This season, Li only competed at the Stonehill Invitational before this weekend.
“He is one of our better high jumpers,” Hart said.
Freshman Dylan Lucas competed in the decathalon event for the first time at this meet. He earned 6,232 points for a third place finish.
Seniors Seri Gordon and Althea Charles both contributed wins to the women’s team’s totaling 100.5 points, good enough for third place. George Mason had 105 points for second and Georgia State University won the meet with 133 points.
“I think we all showed up and really put it all on the table,” Charles said. “We did really well.”
Gordon ran the 800 meter run in 2:13.52 for the title, while Charles threw the hammer 191 feet, 5.63 inches for the same. Charles made the new meet record in this event, which she also won at last year’s meet. She is the first Husky to win the hammer throw more than once at the CAA Championship.
Charles also finished second in the shot put by throwing it 45 feet, 9.21 inches and fifth in the discus throw with a throw of 134 feet, 10.89 inches. With all three of her events, Charles earned 22 points for her team.
Next weekend, the team will compete in the New England Championship meet and the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) Championships.
Hart said he wants the athletes who qualified for nationals to compete against quality competition. He said he believes that those athletes will receive that at the New England Championships and all 64 athletes will be going.
“We’re all ready for New England,” Staples said. “Those who are on the cusp of qualifying for regionals have one more chance to make it so we are all going to put our best foot forward.”
