By Emily McCarthy, News Correspondent
The Northeastern track teams dominated the competition last weekend at the Snowflake Classic at Tufts University. The men’s squad took home the team title and the women’s squad finished third as six Huskies recorded individual victories and more achieved new personal records.
The men’s side finished first out of the field of 24 teams with a team total of 110 points, six points ahead of second-place finisher Tufts. Bridgewater State University finished third.
The leading scorer for Northeastern was junior Max Milder, who captured the top spot in the hammer throw and finished eighth in the discus. He posted an Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) and New England qualifying mark of 60.47 meters in the hammer throw and achieved a new personal best throw of 41.85 meters in the discus.
Milder was named the Colonial Athletic Association Field Athlete of the Week based on his strong performance at the meet.
“It’s a really cool honor,” he said. “I’ve never gotten that before. Honestly I was kind of surprised I got it.”
Despite posting the 13th best throw in the nation, Milder said he was not pleased with how he did in the hammer throw and was expecting a better performance.
“Yes I won,” he said. “But I had a really awesome practice before the meet and was really pumped. When I got out there I felt a little bit off, but I was able to pull it together in the end.”
Freshman Nick Tyler added 10 points to the Huskies’ team total and recorded a new personal best with a first-place mark of 4.30 meters in the pole vault. Sophomore Jared Lane recorded an individual victory in the 110-meter hurdles with a New England qualifying time of 14.98 seconds. The 4×100-meter relay team of Lane, junior Alex Shapiro, and freshmen Donovan Henry and Kevin Hunter also captured the top spot with a time of 42.46 seconds.
Henry added to Northeastern’s score with a second-place finish in the 200-meter dash. He ran a personal best and New England qualifying time of 22.24 seconds. Henry also recorded a new personal best and finished third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.08 seconds. Hunter finished second in the 400 with a personal best time of 49.94 seconds.
Rounding out the scoring for the Huskies was junior Jackson MacDonald who scored in three events. MacDonald finished third in the 100-meter hurdles and the high jump and took the eighth spot in the long jump. Junior Darwin Gibbons took second place in the pole vault and junior Dylan Lucas finished fourth. Senior Mark Mastone and junior Kevin Rosenberg captured the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, in the shot put.
The women’s side scored a total of 71 points and finished third behind Tufts and Boston College.
Northeastern succeeded in the field as three Huskies posted individual victories and also qualified for the New England championships. Graduate student Nia Howard captured the top spot in the long jump with a leap of 5.73 meters, senior Jillena DeCarteret won the pole vault witb h a 3.65 meters and junior Georgia Pingue’s mark of 11.18 meters took the top spot in the triple jump.
Graduate student Lauren Bennett finished second in the pole vault and junior Kelly Benfey came in third. Junior Olivia Stevens finished third in the triple jump. Freshman Jenna Serunian finished fifth in the discus and qualified for the New England championships with a throw of 40.60 meters.
Northeastern also did well on the track as junior Chelsea Hudson won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.20. Junior Danielle Klein finished fifth in the 5,000-meter run with a new personal best time of 18:08.34. In addition to her victory in the long jump, Howard finished fifth in the 200-meter dash with a New England qualifying time of 25.71 seconds.
Milder said he was “really pleased with how the team did as whole.”
“A lot of people had really big performances,” he said. “It’s a good sign for the rest of the season.”
The Huskies look to continue their winning ways this weekend at the Colonial Relays hosted by the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
