By Emily McCarthy, News Correspondent
The Northeastern track teams kicked off their spring seasons Saturday with a strong showing at the Victor Lopez Classic in Houston. Huskies on both the men’s and women’s squads recorded new personal bests and qualified for postseason competitions in their first chance to do so.
The women’s side finished eighth out of 21 teams with a total of 38.5 points. Leading the scoring for Northeastern was graduate student Nia Howard. Howard captured 10 points for the Huskies with a first-place finish in the long jump. Her mark of 5.99 meters qualified her for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) and New England championships and earned her the distinction of Colonial Athletic Association Field Athlete of the Week.
Senior Jillena DeCarteret also contributed 10 points to the team score with a first-place finish in the pole vault. DeCarteret qualified for the ECAC and New England competitions with a mark of 3.80 meters.
DeCarteret said she was very happy with her performance and that she felt the team did well overall.
“This was a great start to the season,” she said. “But there’s still plenty of room for improvement.”
DeCarteret said it was great to qualify for the ECAC and New England meets, but she has bigger goals she wants to accomplish during the outdoor season.
“I’m currently tied for the school record [in the pole vault] right now,” she said. “So I’m looking to break that.”
Adding to the team score for Northeastern was freshman Nicole Genard who finished second in the javelin with a personal best throw of 42.54 meters. Genard’s throw also qualified her for the ECAC and New England competitions. She also qualified for the New England championships in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 15.04 seconds.
Graduate student Lauren Bennett also scored for the Huskies with a fourth-place finish in the pole vault and qualified for the New England competition. Sophomore Jessica Dunnigan took the sixth spot in the long jump and senior Eryn Wheeler finished sixth in the 1,500-meter run. Both athletes qualified for the New England championships.
In the 100-meter dash, Howard, Dunnigan and sophomore Victoria Alexander all ran New England qualifying times. Junior Chelsea qualified for the New England meet with a personal best time of 1:02.48 in the 400-meter hurdles.
The men’s side finished 12th out of 22 teams, led by junior Kaylin Miranda’s top finish in the long jump. He qualified for the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) and New England competitions with a mark of 7.24 meters.
Miranda was also named CAA Field Athlete of the Week. He said that he was happy with his performance although rainy weather the morning of the meet led to subpar conditions for jumping.
“I felt great,” he said. “It was a good way to start the season.”
Junior Max Milder finished third in the hammer throw and qualified for the IC4A and New England championships with a mark of 55.99 meters. Senior Tejorn Davis took fourth in the triple jump with a New England qualifying leap of 14.15 meters. The 4×400-meter relay team also contributed to Northeastern’s team total. The team of freshman Donovan Henry, junior Alex Shapiro, sophomore Jared Lane and freshman Kevin Hunter took fourth place and qualified for the IC4A and New England championships with a time of 3:14.06.
Lane, who finished eighth in the 200-meter dash, and junior Brian Doyle, who finished eighth in the 1,500-meter run rounded out the scoring for Northeastern. Doyle’s new personal best time of 3:50.41 qualified him for the IC4A and New England meets.
Miranda said he thought the team did a great job.
“Overall we came out and had good times and good jumps,” he said. “It was a successful meet.”
The Huskies return to the track this weekend for the Snowflake Classic hosted by Tufts University in Medford.
