By Katie Zigelman, News Staff
The Northeastern men’s track and field team finished second at Battle of the Beantown, the track and field Beanpot, last Friday at the Gordon Indoor Track in Cambridge. The women’s team came in fourth.
Like other Beanpots, the Battle of the Beantown pitts Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University and Harvard University against one another. Both of Harvard’s teams placed first out of the four schools overall.
“This was the third week in a row of running for the team,” head coach Sherman Hart said. “It’s tough to do that over and over. I could see them losing the spring in their legs. But we still had some good successes, it was not all downhill.”
The men’s team brought in four individual victories to help earn its 156.5 points, second only to host Harvard’s 191. Sophomore Eric Jenkins was victorious in the 1,000-meter run, completing the event with the Husky best for the season at 2:25.47. Sophomore Brian Doyle ran for the top spot in the mile run with a 4:08.02.
Hart said Doyle’s low mile time was one of the highlights of the meet, along with Jenkins’ 1,000 and freshman a 3,000 meter win by Stephen Sollowin, who finished that race in 8:26.37.
Junior long-jumper Stefano Combi was the final first-place finish for the men’s team. He jumped 23 feet, 2 inches for the win and followed up his first performance with a second place finish in the 60 meter hurdles (8.23).
Hart described Sollowin as “a beast.”
“He is a man among boys,” he said. “I don’t know how else to describe him.”
Freshman Jared Lane also competed in the 60-meter hurdles and earned some points for the team with a third place finish of 8.33.
Lane did not stop at the hurdles. In fact, he continued earning points for the team in his third place 200 meter dash performance, where he finished behind senior teammate Darius Velez (6.88).
Sophomore Alex Shapiro earned second in the 400 meter run with a 49.26 time while classmates Kaylin Miranda and Max Milder earned the same runner-up honors in the long jump and weight throw respectively. Miranda jumped 22 feet, 11.25 inches and Milder hurled 56 feet, 9.25 inches.
On the women’s side, senior Saleena Abdur-Rashed and Junion Julia Westover earned the team’s two first place finishes. Abdur-Rashed won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.57 and Westover threw the furthest distance in the weight throw (57 feet, 2.25 inches).
Sophomore Georgia Pingue had a runner-up performance in the triple jump with a combination of 39 feet, 10 inches – a season best – and junior Rachel Taback joined Westover on the podium with a third place finish in the weight throw (50 feet, 11 inches).
The Huskies were tired, Hart said, because of how well they performed at the Joe Donahue Indoor Games Jan. 27. The men earned 15 top 10 finishes for a third place overall and the women had ten top-three performances for their second place finish.
Velez won the 55 meter dash with the fourth fastest time in Northeastern history, 6.40 – the fastest a Husky has run this event since 1986. Velez was not the only Husky to rewrite a line in the record book at this meet.
On the women’s side, Pingue won the triple jump after jumping 39 feet, 10 inches the fifth-best mark in Northeastern indoor track and field history.
“I was so in awe,” Pingue said. “It was a huge shock to win. My [personal record] was from high school in my junior year. To break it was a relief because I hadn’t in two years.”
Both record breakers said they were excited about their performances and said that it was an honor to get to do it at the meet dedicated to Joe Donahue, their former coach.
Northeastern Athletics Department renamed their annual Boston Indoor Games the Joe Donahue Indoor Games to honor late coach Donahue, who died in October.
“It was definitely a goal to be victorious,” Pingue said. “It’s always good when you can win in a competitive field. The 55 meter dash is always the first event to go off in track meets so I felt it would be good to go out there and set the tone for the rest of my teammates … But most of all to compete in honor of Joe [Donahue] was most important.”
Pingue said honoring Donahue contributed to the team’s successful meet, but there were other factors as well.
“I definitely like competing at home more,” she said. “You always want to do better. Everyone’s family and friends are there, even the men’s basketball team came out. You want to work harder when there is support. Overall it was just a good day. Running for our old coach, Joe Donahue made it more special.”
Pingue wasn’t alone in his statements towards the coach that once was. Hart said that Donahue was “the greatest.”
“He was coaching when I was a student at Northeastern,” he said. “He had retired for two years when I took over but I got him out of retirement to be my girl’s coach. He was one of the best in the country.”
The Huskies now get a much needed break before the New England Championship Feb. 24 and Velez said he thinks they are ready.
“I expect that our entire team will continue to improve as the weeks go buy,” Velez said. “I think our coaches have done a good job this year with the timing of training and it’s showing because everyone’s times are dropping as the weeks go by. Hopefully, we as a team will all put out our peak performances during the championship meets in weeks to come.”
