By Bailey Putnam, deputy sports editor
The Northeastern track and field team got back on the track for the first time in 2015 at a multi-day meet at Harvard University this weekend. The Huskies competed for the first time in over a month against Harvard, Cornell and Brown Universities, Army and University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst at the Beantown Challenge.
Though NU finished fifth overall, the team had some strong individual efforts and saw several Huskies in the top tier of their competitions.
For the women, freshman sprinter Amanda Reilly finished sixth overall in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.88. She also came in 15th out of 24 and at the top of her section in the 200-meter at 26.23.
Senior sprinter Jessica Dunnigan, who also finished atop her section, placed fourth overall in the 400-meter event with a 59.84 finish.
Freshman middle distance runner Corinne Myers secured a second-place finish for the Huskies in the 500-meter run, clocking in at 1:16.93.
Redshirt freshman distance runner Sarah Adler finished fifth in the 1000-meter race while sophomore Lucy Young secured sixth in the mile.
The Huskies were back near the top in the 3000-meter event as sophomore distance runner Jordan O’Dea placed third overall with a 9:46.96 finish.
Two Huskies placed first in off-track events. Junior vaulter Jacilyn Briggs tied for first place in the pole vault with a height of 3.75 meters and sophomore Betsy Garnick edged out the competition in the long jump, leaping 5.40 meters.
The Northeastern men’s squad had a strong performance on the weekend, racking up 79 total points.
The Huskies finished strong in the 60-meter dash. Senior sprinter Damani Wilson and sophomore sprinter Kyle Darrow finished second and third overall with times of 6.88 and 6.97, respectively.
Wilson also finished fifth in the 200-meter event, edged out by junior sprinter Donovan Henry who clocked in at 22.33 for fourth overall. Henry went on to place fifth in the 400-meter race as well.
Sophomore sprinter Anthony Pavlich placed fourth in the 500 at 1:06.89.
It was a strong showing by the Huskies in the 1000-meter event as sophomore middle distance runner Paul Duffey finished at the top with a 2:24.04 finish. Following him were senior distance runners Stephen Sollowin and Zachary Fraielli who placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
Freshman distance runner Christian Stafford secured a third place finish in the mile along with other third place finishes from redshirt senior thrower Kevin Rosenberg in the shot put and freshman Nick Fofana in the Heptathlon.
Huskies placed first in a pair of other events. Darrow leapt 7.04 meters to place first in the long jump event. Standout freshman jumper Jordan Samuels blew by the competition with a personal best 8.17 time in the 60-meter hurdles.
“Winning the hurdles was pretty awesome,” Samuels said. “Only being a freshman, I’m pretty excited about the times I’ve been running and how I’m going to progress over my time at NU.”
Samuels, who also tacked on a third place finish in the triple jump, said he is confident that his team will have a competitive rest of the season.
“We are a group of well-rounded individuals and we are really starting to buckle down and get serious about the meets to come. We have a lot of talent and potential on the team and we are very excited about the rest of the season.”
The Huskies look ahead to their next meet, the Joe Donahue Games, at home at Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on Friday.
Photo courtesy Northeastern Athletics
