By Tory Igoe, news staff
Over the weekend, members of Northeastern’s track and field team traveled to Stanford, California, and New Haven, Connecticut, knowing they needed to capitalize on last week’s success. At Stanford University’s invitational meet, the Huskies faced some of the best athletes in the sport and proved they deserved to be ranked among them. Back on the East Coast at Yale University’s invitational meet, athletes accumulated 82 top 10 finishes and landed 21 first place finishes.
At Stanford, Northeastern was represented by seniors Paul Duffey and Jordan O’Dea and sophomore Marc Rienas. In the 1,500 meter sprint, Duffey and Rienas clocked in at 3 minutes, 44.17 seconds and 3:51.75, respectively. The stunning result landed Duffey and Rienas 12th and 44th place out of 62 competitors. O’Dea completed the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 10:38.8, placing 25th out of 38 competitors. All three Huskies qualified for New England Championships with their performances.
“I am optimistic about our championship run,” head coach Cathrine Erickson said. “If these athletes can place amongst the fastest in the country, there is no telling what men and women’s track and field can do at championships.”
At Yale, the vast number of top 10 finishes makes it near impossible to elucidate the accomplishments of each individual athlete. However, there was a record-setting number of 21 first place finishers.
In track, sophomores Sydney Fisher, Patrice Williams and Chris Jewett all finished first in the 100, 200 and 400 men’s and women’s sprints, with times, respectively, of 12.01 seconds, 26.09 seconds, 58.69 seconds and 51.27 seconds. Juniors Corinne Myers, Jay Navin, Nick Fofana and Audrey Weyand competed in the 800 run, 1500 run, 110 hurdles and 400 hurdles. All landed first place finishes with times of 2:20.93, 4:12.96, 14.81 seconds and 1:07.96 respectively. Seniors Kyle Darrow and Betsy Garnick rounded out the pack in the 100 dash and the 100 hurdles, with New England Championship qualifying times of 10.63 seconds and 14.72 seconds.
Field athletes were equally successful. Sophomores Danae Bucci, Zhane Goode and Kurt Robakiewicz finished first in the women’s high jump, women’s triple jump and men’s triple jump with heights of 1.65 meters, 11.09 meters and 14.18 meters, respectively. Juniors Ryan Kim and Zoe Taitel competed in the shot put and discus competitions, finishing with distances of 16.34 meters and 45.70 meters. Finally, freshman Leeyan Redwood and senior Chris Manning excelled in the women’s shot put and men’s high jump with a distance of 13.79 meters and height of 1.99 meters, respectively.
With an astounding amount of success between the two meets, the Huskies look to bring the same momentum at Auburn University and the Hurricane Alumni Invitational at the University of Miami this coming weekend.
“I am looking forward to seeing how things come together,” Erickson said.
