By David Konowitch, news correspondent
The Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A)/Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships, hosted by Boston University (BU) March 6-8, concluded the Northeastern men’s and women’s track and field teams’ indoor season.
The men placed 12th of 46 schools, amassing 25 points, while the women finished in 43rd place, scoring only one point. On the men’s side, Monmouth University took the top spot with 58 points, and the University of Connecticut won on the women’s field with 53 points.
“We are a very young team with almost every contributor coming back next year,” Director of Track and Field Cathrine Erickson said in an interview with Northeastern University Athletics following the meet.
Overall, the men had 11 finishers in the top 10 and the women had six finishers in the top 25.
The men opened the scoring in the heptathlon, in which freshman multi-sport competitor Nick Fofana placed second overall, scoring 5,086 points and earning eight points for his team.
Graduate student sprinter Damani Wilson finished seventh in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.71 seconds to grab two points for the Huskies.
Sophomore sprinter Kyle Darrow continued his dominance in the long jump, winning the event with a leap of 7.53 meters, half a meter more than his closest competitor.
In a sixth-place performance, the 4×400-meter relay team of junior sprinter Donovan Henry, redshirt senior sprinter Joshua Norris, sophomore sprinter Anthony Pavlich and senior sprinter Jared Lane broke the indoor school record with a time of 3:12.75. The team eclipsed the 35-year-old record by .04 seconds.
“Kyle Darrow and Nick Fofana did a great job putting us in the lead after day two with a really impressive impact from just a sophomore and freshman,” Erickson said. “The 4×400 breaking the indoor school record was also a highlight of the meet as we say goodbye and thank you to Josh Norris. He finished his collegiate eligibility with a 47.5 split on the second leg of the relay. Donovan, Damani and Anthony also ran extremely well during the relay.”
The 4×800 meter relay team of freshman middle-distance runner James Navin, sophomore middle-distance runner David McDonald, freshman distance runner Ben Trapani and sophomore middle-distance runner Connor Quinn rounded out the scoring on the track by placing eighth with a time of 7:46.02.
The Huskies placed two throwers in the top 10 in the shot put, with redshirt senior Kevin Rosenberg placing eighth and freshman Ryan Kim placing 10th with tosses of 16.11 and 15.74 meters, respectively.
The women’s team was highlighted by two performances off the track, starting with lone point-scorer junior vaulter Jacilyn Briggs, whose vault of 3.85 meters earned an eighth-place finish.
Freshman jumper Kelsey Sullivan cleared the high jump bar at 1.64 meters and finished 13th in the event.
The following weekend, March 14 and 15, the Huskies sent sophomore middle-distance runner Paul Duffey to compete in the 800-meter race at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championships.
Entrance into the competition is based on finishes throughout the season. With Duffey’s five first-place finishes in various events, he qualified for the competition in Fayetteville, Ark.
Duffey, the current school record holder in the indoor 800-meter race, entered the championship seeded 12th of 16 participants and was the first Husky to qualify in the indoor championships since 2012-13.
Going into the meet, Erickson acknowledged the strides that Duffey had made in just two years.
“Going from being a less-than-highly-recruited athlete to a top-15 nationally-ranked athlete is a true testament to Paul and to the program,” Erickson said. “We are putting the right pieces together for our student athletes to represent Northeastern on a very big stage.”
Competing in the second heat, Duffey was contending with the top three runners during the first 400 meters. As the race concluded, the top three pulled away, and Duffey placed seventh in his heat and 14th overall with a time of 1:50.83. The time was his second fastest of the season and the seventh fastest in program history.
“There are many takeaways for us to focus on as we move into the outdoor season and prepare for the outdoor championships,” Erickson said. “Given that this is Paul’s first time at the NCAA Championships, we are very proud of him.”
The Huskies now shift their focus to the outdoor portion of their schedule where they begin the second half of spring season at the Carolina Classic in Carolina, Puerto Rico on March 20-21.
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
