By Jessica Geller, sports editor
Northeastern’s track and field team started the season with seven first place finishes at the Dec. 6 Boston University (BU) season opener. One week later, NU hosted the sixth annual Jay Carisella Invitational and finished first overall.
In between the two meets, director of track and field Cathrine Erickson named the 2014-15 captains. The women’s captains are juniors Jacilyn Briggs, Camille Gooden and Nicole Genard. Seniors Jared Lane and Stephen Sollowin and junior Donovan Henry were named the men’s captains.
“I love track and field, and to be able to step up as a leader will ultimately help me become an even better athlete, and most importantly it will help me help my teammates to do their best and reach desired goals,” Genard said in an email to The News.
Qualifying for the indoor championship meets was up for grabs. Men and women participate in the New England Championships, held in late February. The women could also qualify for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) meet and the men for the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) meet, both held at BU in early March. Each competition has set times or distances that one must beat in order to qualify.
The 3000-meter run saw NU’s greatest success of the opener as the Huskies finished with three runners in the top four. Sollowin ran the laps in 8:14.42 for first place. Freshman Christian Stafford finished second with a time of 8:27.20 and senior Zachary Fraielli finished in 8:32.26 for fourth place.
Sophomore Paul Duffey sprinted the one-mile run in 4:14.65, winning first place while qualifying for the New England championships.
In the 60-meter hurdles, freshman Jordan Samuels ran 8.19, a personal best, making him an IC4A and New England qualifier.
The men’s track and field 4×400-meter relay team of redshirt senior Joshua Norris, Henry and sophomores Anthony Pavlich and Kyle Darrow swiftly passed the baton between teammates to finish first. NU’s 3:21.87 was less than one second faster than BU, the second and third place school.
On the women’s side, junior Alexandra Rose threw the weight 15.77 meters for first place. This was Rose’s first weight throw win.
Gooden completed the 400-meter run in first place, finishing with a New England qualifier time of 56.62.
Redshirt freshman Sarah Adler completed the 800-meter run with a personal best and a New England qualifier time of 2:17.84. Adler finished first in her first collegiate track and field event.
On Dec. 13, Northeastern hosted the Jay Carisella Invitational in honor of James “Jay” Victor Carisella II who was killed in a car accident in 2007 inNew Orleans. He was a 19-year-old sophomore at Northeastern and a leader on the cross country team.
“The Jay Carisella Invitational meet is a very important meet for our team,” Genard said. “We all want to do our best because that is our way of showing respect to Jay.”
The Northeastern women hosted six schools: Dartmouth University, University of New Hampshire, Sacred Heart University, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Holy Cross University and Hartford University. The Huskies compiled 153.5 points for first place. The men competed against the same six schools, with the addition of the University of Rhode Island, for a first place finish of 154 points.
SophomoreDuffey continued his success with a first place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:52.83. This qualified him for the IC4A and New England competitions.
Samuels,a freshman, repeated his 60-meter hurdle win from the season opener with a time of 8.23. Another back-to-back winner was Rose in the weight throw, this time for 15.54 meters.
NU’s men’s 4×800-meter relay team – sophomores David McDonald and Connor Quinn and freshmen James Navin and Ben Trapani – completed the race in 7:52.50 for first place.Not to be outdone by the men, women’s 4X800-meter team of Adler, senior Jessica Dunnigan, and freshmen Kelsey Sullivan and Audrey Weyand won first with a time of 9:48.48.
Genard and Darrow both landed first place finishes in the long jump with distances of 5.64 meters and 7.09 meters, respectively. Darrow qualified for the IC4A and both jumpersqualified for the New England.
Genard missed the BU season opener due toa back injury, but was healthy enough to compete the following week.
“I was very satisfied with my long jump performance,” Genard said. “I had a great start and great build up, all I had to do is be patient in the air and I would have a great jump.”
Briggs placed first in the pole vault with a distance of 3.75 meters. She qualified for the ECAC and New England meets.
Sophomore Jordan O’Dea qualified for ECAC and New England with her first place 5,000-meter. run of 17:14.64.
After a month in between competitions due to winter break, the next meets are both hosted by Harvard University on Jan. 16 and 17.
“I don’t believe that having time off sets the team back from self-motivation or training,” Genard said. “We all have similar goals we are working on when it comes to track so those goals ultimately help us keep our focus and give us motivation to train and stay in shape during break.”
Photo courtesy Steve Lipofsky, Northeastern Athletics
