By Emily McCarthy, News Correspondent
The Northeastern men’s and women’s cross country teams kicked off the fall season with a pair of team victories at the Nassaney Invitational in Smithfield, R.I. on Saturday.
The men’s squad captured four of the top five finishes en route to a decisive 34-point triumph over host Bryant University. The Huskies prevailed over Boston University by 21 points.
Although Northeastern runners held the lead most of the race, sophomore Wesley Gallagher said he did not expect the landslide victory.
“I know we have a good team,” Gallagher said via a recorded interview arranged by NU Athletics. “But I wasn’t really expecting that much. I knew Steve [Sollowin] was with me but I had no idea Zach [Fraielli] was right behind us.”
Gallagher finished first overall with a time of 15:21.0. Juniors Stephen Sollowin and Zachary Fraielli rounded out the top-three with times of 15:21.5 and 15:22.7, respectively. Sophomore Zachary Krause finished fifth overall with a time of 15:31.5.
“The second mile I took the lead with Steve [Sollowin],” Gallagher said. “We kind of worked off of each other and kind of worked together. For the last mile a Quinnipiac kid took the lead so Steve and I just sat behind him, stayed relaxed, just kind of hung tight. At the end, with 400 to go we went around him and picked it up.”
Sophomore Allen Meringolo, junior Charles Conway and freshman Craig Hammond finished in the top 25 to round out the scoring for the Huskies.
Cathrine Erickson, director of Northeastern’s track and field and cross country programs, said that the team this year is very cohesive and she’s happy to see the cross country program’s success so far this season.
“You go into a competition ready to run your race,” Erickson said. “Training and workouts have gone well, it was just about going out and racing.”
The women’s team also brought a victory back to Huntington Ave. as they defeated BU by three points and earned a slim, one-point win over Bryant.
In her first race as a Husky, freshman Jordan O’Dea led the way for Northeastern with a time of 18:20.2, good for a sixth place finish.
“I’m very happy with the way I raced,” O’Dea said via NU Athletics. “I was really nervous about the first race, not knowing what to expect.”
O’Dea said it was very exciting to take the top spot for Northeastern.
“The first half of the race I felt confident,” she said. “I felt really good. I was kind of going at a pretty fast pace.”
With times of 19:10.1 and 19:11.7, respectively, sophomore Jocelyn Hubbard and senior Danielle Klein finished 24th and 25th overall.
“The women’s team is very different from what it was last year,” Erickson said. “It’s really exciting. There is someareal big potential this year. It will be fun to see how well they do.”
The Huskies will look to continue their winning ways on Sept. 21 as they travel to Bronx, N.Y. to compete in the Br. Doyle Iona Meet of Champions at Iona College.
