By Emily McCarthy, News Correspondent
The Northeastern University men’s and women’s track teams hosted the second annual Joe Donahue Games at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury on Friday. Both Husky squads had successful meets as the women’s team dominated the competition and tied for first place out of 12 teams while the men’s team finished third out of 13 teams.
Powered by five first-place finishes, the women’s side scored a total of 85.5 points, tying them with Boston College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for the top spot. Junior Chelsea Hudson won the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.07 seconds.
Freshman Jocelyn Hubbard earned 10 points for Northeastern with a first-place time of 1:16:39 in the 500-meter dash and also anchored the winning relay team. The other runners who competed in the 4×400-meter relay were freshman Meaghan Dowd, sophomore Monet Brathwaite and sophomore Jessica Dunnigan.
Freshman Nicole Genard won the 60-meter hurdles with an Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) meet qualifying time of 8.9 seconds. Senior Jillena Decarteret’s New England and ECAC meet qualifying mark of 3.65 meters in the pole vault also captured a first-place finish for the Huskies. Graduate student Nia Howard contributed to Northeastern’s team score with a third-place finish in the 60-meter dash and a second place finish in the 200-meter dash.
Catherine Erickson, director of track & field and cross country, said she felt that the team was getting better as more athletes were qualifying for the New England and ECAC competitions.
“Every athlete is striving for New England, and we had many athletes knock down those marks this weekend,” she said. “The goal is for our athletes to compete at the highest level possible.”
The men’s side scored a total of 84 points, which put them in third place behind Brown University and the University of New Hampshire. Junior Kaylin Miranda won the long jump for the Huskies with a leap of 7.09 meters. Junior Max Milder also captured ten points for Northeastern by winning the weight throw with a mark of 17.96 meters.
Sophomore Stephen Sollowin came in first place in the 1000-meter run and qualified for the ECAC and New England meets with a personal-best time of 2:28:67. He said he was pleasantly surprised at his top time, considering that he usually runs longer races.
“The 1,000 isn’t my normal event,” Sollowin said. “I hadn’t run that race since high school. I just wanted to pick up some speed.”
Sophomore Jared Lane earned 16 points towards the team total with second-place finishes in both the 200-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles. Also adding to the Huskies’ score was junior Jackson MacDonald, who took second place in the long jump, finished sixth in the 60-meter hurdles and earned two points with a seventh-place leap in the high jump.
Sollowin said he was proud of the Northeastern squad’s strong showing at the Donahue Games despite some injuries, and confident that the team will continue to improve throughout the season.
“We had a few injuries in sprints and jumps,” he said. “If everyone was healthy, we could have won the meet.”
The Huskies return to the track this weekend at the Giegengack Invitational hosted by Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
