The Northeastern mens’ and womens’ track and field made a strong showing over the weekend at the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational down in Lynchburg, Virginia. Several stellar performances helped the Huskies make themselves known in the large field of teams, including the host, Liberty University Flames.

Senior sprinter Donatien Djero led the way for the men, finishing third in the 60 meter dash in 6.82 seconds, fifth in the 200 meter dash in 21.77 seconds and running the third leg of the Huskies’ runner-up 4×400 meter relay team. On the womens’ side, sophomore multi-event athlete Dominique Biron showed out, placing 2nd in the high jump with a 1.65 meter jump, 4th in the 400 meter dash in 58.47 seconds, 6th in the long jump at 5.77 meters, the eighth longest jump in NU history and running the first leg of the Huskies’ sixth place 4×400 meter relay team.

For the women, senior sprinter Khailah Griffin finished 15th in both the 60 and 200 meter dashes with times of 7.89 and 25.70 seconds, junior mid-distance runner Lucinda Shotts finished sixth in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:16.80, sophomore distance runner Juliet Bussell finished seventh in the 5k run with a time of 17:53.38 and freshmen throwers Tristany Cardillo and Madeleine Duchaussee finished ninth and 13th, respectively, in the shot put, throwing 12.83 and 12.45 meters.

Turning to mens’ performances, senior Dametrius O’Connor and junior Phillips Magre created a wave of red and black in the 200, finishing right on the tail of Djero in sixth and seventh with times of 21.85 and 22.10 seconds. Magre also finished eighth in the 400 with a time of 49.91 seconds. In the 60 meter hurdles, junior Mayowa Osunsami finished fourth in 8.16 seconds and freshman Savion Thompson finished sixth in 8.31 seconds, moving him up to eighth on the NU all-time performance list. Thompson also finished seventh in the long jump with a 6.69m leap. Osusami’s time of 8.07 seconds in the 60m hurdles preliminaries moved him into sole possession of the sixth all-time mark in NU history.

After the first day of competition, head coach Tramaine Shaw was pleased with the team’s showing at Liberty, talking about the personal records many athletes were able to set.

“Day one saw a ton of great performances, including two PR’s in the men’s hurdles from Mayowa Osunsami and freshman Savion Thompson, Dominique Biron PR’d once again in the women’s long jump and in the 400, and Juliet Bussell had an amazing race in the 5k, PRing and setting herself up for a great season,” she said. 

After the second day, assistant coach Wilfredo de Jesus echoed coach Shaw’s thoughts on the strong PR’s and expressed optimism for the rest of the season. 

“Our kids are getting better every week,” he said. “We have a mentality of blue collar, just put our heads down and get the work done, and come perform when the opportunities come about. We’re very excited about what’s coming.”

The Huskies track and field teams are starting to turn it on and will get their next chance to compete Feb. 25 and 26 at the University of Rhode Island.