By P.J. Wright, news correspondent
The Northeastern University (NU) indoor track and field teams kicked off the season with a bang, putting together several outstanding performances in their first two meets of the campaign.
Expectations are high for the Huskies in 2016. Both squads finished the 2014-15 season with the New England Championship title, the first time both have won in the same year since 2000. Last year, the women’s program broke eight school recordsand finished with 55 top-10 performancesand three NCAA qualifiers. The men shattered seven school records of their own, with 82 top-10 finishes and five NCAA qualifiers.
“This was a solid opener for our program,” head coach Cathrine Erickson told GoNU.com. “We anticipate this group to be a really strong group and expect to see many good performances to come.”
The two programs began the year with standout performances in the Boston University (BU) season opener, putting together 22 top-10 finishes, nine of which were first place performances and 19 top-three spots.
The men ended the afternoon with 22 indoor personal bests, four all-time bests, 11 New England-qualifying marks, and six IC4A-qualifying marks. Kyle Darrow was among the top performers for the Huskies, as he became number two on NU’s all-time list for the long jump with a distance of 7.61 meters.
Kwame Fordwor also starred on the men’s side, finishing the 200- meter dash in first place at 22.03 seconds and took second place in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.00. Ryan Kim had an impressive performance in the shot put, coming in first place with a throw of 16.26 meters.
The women achieved 24 personal bests, six top-10 finishes, 23 New England-qualifying marks and five ECAC-qualifying marks.
Nicole Genard dominated the long jump with her first-place 5.67-meter leap. Genard just missed her eighth all-time distance for NU in the indoor long jump at 5.7 meters.
Brooke Wojeski kept the momentum going from her outstanding cross country season with a first-place finish in the 3000-meter run at 9:53.35.
The Huskies’ second meet of the season was the Carisella Invitational, hosted at the Reggie Lewis Center on Saturday. The NU women’s team took first place with 207.5 points while the men placed second with 150.5 points.
The Red and Black had 26 top-three performers and eight first place spots. For the women, Corinne Myers dominated the 1000-meter run with her first-place finish, breaking the meet record with a time of 2:51.48, and Shawn Bleichert took home first and broke the meet record in the same event for the men.
The 4x800m team of Amy Piccolo, Katie Hanlon, Sarah Adler and Corinne Myers broke a meet record of their own, crossing the finish line in first at 9:25.47.
First place finishes included: Jessica Scott in the long jump with a distance of 5.69 meters, Rose Castle in the triple jump at 10.90 meters, Ryan Kim in the shot put with a 15.80 meters mark, Christian Stafford in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:28.09, and the 4×800 meter relay team of David McDonald, Collin Rowe, Jay Navinand Marc Rienas with a time of 7:59.19.
Among the men’s NCAA qualifiers from last season is junior Paul Duffey, who hasn’t raced in the first two meets of the year. Duffey currently holds the NU 800-meter record at 1:48.02, and went on to place 14th overall in the NCAA Indoor Championship last March.
The Huskies’ next meets will be on Jan. 15-16 when they participate in the Harvard Multi at the Gordon Indoor Track.
Photo Courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics.
