By Rishabh Sivakumar, News Correspondent
With fall varsity sports now in full swing, the cross country team made the trek to Westfield on Sunday to compete in the New England Championships. The men’s team placed ninth in a field of 37 teams and the women’s team placed 29th.
This was the first meet in which the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed since Sept. 22, when they traveled to New Britain, Conn., for the Ted Owen Invitational. Where the men’s and women’s teams placed first and eighth respectively.
The New England Championships proved to be a challenge for the Huskies, with more than six states and 65 schools participating, but the Huskies rose to the challenge with individuals placing in the top 30.
Leading the men’s side, freshman Wesley Gallagher finished 12th, and the men’s cross country team managed an outstanding 9th place finish.
Gallagher managed to set the pace for the rest of the men’s team by finishing the eight-kilometer race in 24:42:72. Sophomore Stephen Sollowin was next to finish for the Husky men in 29th overall with a time of 25:08:19.
On the other side, the women were led by junior Danielle Klein’s 81st overall finish in the five-kilometer race, 18:42.81.
Northeastern was competing with many other schools around New England, including Boston College, Harvard and Tufts Universities all of which director of track and field and cross country Cathrine Erickson described as “great ranked teams.”
Erickson said the younger members of the team have left an impression.
“[They’ve] responded to the task of running in college well,” she said.
Erickson is in her first year as director and is looking to reshape the program, left to her by former-head coach Sherman Hart.
“We are still in the beginning stages of building the program,” and work needs to be done, she said.
Northeastern’s cross country program only started recently and still has massive room for improvement she said. One problem Erickson highlighted was the fact that on both the men’s and women’s team “everyone is at different levels.”
Some members of the team have been competing for five years at the collegiate level while for others, the 2012-2013 season is their first as a Husky.
Furthermore, Erickson said she would like to see more of the student body at Northeastern get involved and interested in the varsity cross country team.
But for the team, she wants to see them go into the CAA Championships strong.
The next three meets are crucial for the team, including the NCAA National Championship in Lexington, Ky., on Nov. 10.
The Huskies next event will be the CAA Championship when they travel to Williamsburg, Va., on Oct. 27.
