By David Konowitch, news correspondent
The Northeastern track and field team took home trophies this weekend on both the men’s and women’s sides at the New England Championships. The meet, hosted by Boston University, took place Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28. The Huskies competed all season to qualify athletes for the New England Championships.
The men compiled 161 points in a dominant first-place performance over 32 other schools, nearly doubling the score of the second place finisher, University of Rhode Island, which scored 89 points.
The women collected 81 points in a competition with 37 other schools, taking the top spot. They beat out runner-up Southern Connecticut State University by three points.
On the men’s side, the Huskies benefitted from depth in all phases of the meet, scoring in 18 of the 20 events.
Leading the way was senior distance runner Stephen Sollowin, who won both the 3000-meter run and the mile race with times of 8:19.64 and 4:07.31, respectively.
“What makes this victory so special is that everyone had a part in it, and no one person meant more to team success than another,” Sollowin said in an email to The News. “This allows us to share moments like this with each other for the rest of our lives.”
Team success was illustrated in the 200-meter dash, in which four Huskies collected 21 points in a single event. Graduate student sprinter Damani Wilson finished second in 21.72 seconds. Junior sprinter Donovan Henry placed third, sophomore sprinter Kyle Darrow placed fifth and senior sprinter Jared Lane finished sixth, with all three finishing within 13 hundredths of a second behind Wilson.
Darrow also added a first-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 7.58 meters, while Lane added two second-place finishes in the 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter dash.
The women had a balanced attack, as well, scoring in 11 of 20 events.
Top scorers for the women were sophomore distance runners Lucy Young and Jordan O’Dea, who scored 18 and 12 points, respectively.
Young won the 3000-meter run in 9:41.06, while O’Dea finished third in 9:47.11. The tandem placed consecutively in the 5000-meter run. Young finished second in 16:54.38, while O’Dea crossed the line third in 17:06.26.
Junior sprinter Camille Gooden was the other winner for the Huskies, taking the 500-meter dash in 1:13.69.
The Huskies compete next at the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A)/Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships on March 6-8 in Boston.
“We have been training hard for the whole season for the championship meets,” Sollowin said. “Winning the New England Championships gives us more confidence to go out, compete and have success running against more difficult competition as the season progresses.”
Photo by Michael Scott, photo courtesy Northeastern Athletics
