by Tory Igoe, news staff
The Northeastern University (NU) track and field teams competed locally at Harvard’s Crimson Elite Meet and Boston University’s Scarlet & White Meet this past weekend. At the Crimson Elite Meet on Feb. 3, the NU throwers shined among the sea of athletes and completed the meet at fourth place out of eight teams. At the Scarlet & White Meet on Feb. 4, a top 10 finish found itself sprinkled with quite a few individual successes.
En masse, the Huskies made meaningful steps toward championships.
“It was a good weekend as a whole. We were actually looked at as a day one and a day two to mimic championship meets for many,” head coach Cathrine Erickson said.
At Harvard, the Crimson found themselves returning to the meet where sophomore Nicky Maxwell broke an NCAA record in the 60-meter sprint with a time of 9.01 seconds just one year prior. Needless to say, Harvard came in ready to compete.
For Northeastern, many individual performances were worthy of note. In throwing, junior Conor Fuegere launched the weight 16.50 meters while freshman Erica Belvit catapulted hers for an estimated 17.22 meters. Both received third place finishes as a result.
Among other noteworthy results, sophomore Paige Suse landed a height of 1.74 meters and senior Chris Manning leapt for 1.90 meters in the high jump. Both found themselves finishing second in their events.
In light of the fourth place finish, the Huskies showed determination. The substantial amount of solid individual performances allowed the team to walk away feeling accomplished.
At Boston University’s Scarlet and White Meet, the Huskies came out fighting, finishing in the top 10 out of 24 respective teams. Among the hype, numerous individually strong performances further demonstrated how far the Huskies have come.
Top finishes are listed as the following: The distance medley relay with a time of 9:39.38 with senior Paul Duffey, sophomore Marc Rienas, sophomore Chris Jewett and freshman Cameron Kunde finishing first; senior Kyle Darrow in the long jump with a distance of 7.4 meters, and the 60-meter dash for freshman Naukym Morton with a time of 6.79 seconds. Hence, the Huskies proved a dominant force.
Moving forward toward New England Championships, the Huskies need to exhibit greater consistency across the board. Despite the strong individual showings, the holistic finish determines how far forward a team moves.
“We will be looking to go into this weekend a little sharper as we will see many of our IC4A/ECAC competitors,” Erickson said.
Despite the obvious strength of the individuals, Huskies track and field must learn to take their powerhouse performers and make that the team standard.
Next week, the team returns to Boston University for the David Hemery Invitational. With multiple returning teams, the Huskies should know what to expect with regards to competition.
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
