By James Eddy II
Despite a lack of top results, the men’s and women’s track and field teams had strong performances at the Florida State Relays Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The Huskies made their second trip this season to the South, this time going to Tallahassee, Fla., and showed quality performances, though they did not post many top-three finishes.
Northeastern went up against larger Division I schools like Texas A’M, Florida, Florida State and Michigan, and were able to remain competitive. Though his team faced tough competition, head coach Sherman Hart said the Huskies were not intimidated.
Hart said he was particularly impressed with his distance and mid-distance runners. The mid-distance women showed their strength by finishing runner-up to No.4 ranked Michigan in the 4×800-meter relay.
The Huskies finished the meet with only two other top-three finishes, with freshman Annie Scully finishing third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The other came from junior Kristie Gagnon, who placed second in the 10,000-meter.
Sophomores Jonathan Hall, with a fifth place finish in the 400-meter hurdles, and Jordan Thull, who placed sixth in the pole vault, brought home top placements for the men.
The warm Florida weather – upward of 81 degrees – had an effect on the team as the Huskies made some mistakes, which Hart also attributed to a lack of practice. Senior captain Tramaine Shaw said the greatest challenge for the athletes to overcome wasn’t the high temperature, but the humidity.
Overall Hart said he felt his team had a pretty good performance, despite making some small mistakes.
“We blew a hand off in the second leg of the 4×100,” he said. “When we blew that hand off we were in second and given the second place time we would have gotten second if we didn’t blow that hand off.”
It was a strange event, in that the team had its meet at the same time as Florida high schools. The Huskies were unbothered by this, and used the meet as an opportunity to recruit kids to come to Northeastern, Shaw said.
The Huskies were able to compete strongly despite still having only one outdoor practice due to the unpredictable Boston weather.
“It was good to actually run outside,” Shaw said. “It was good to face strong competition to help us prepare for conference.”
The Huskies had little results in the field events because half of the team was left at home to compete in another event. However, the home team was unable to compete because of the weather.
The mistakes that were made could not be blamed on nerves. The Huskies were not awestruck by their high-level of competition. Hart was pleased that no one on the team was intimidated by the competition. Shaw said she felt the team was able to look past the higher level of competition by focusing on things they could control.
“Our main concern is our ability,” Shaw said. “Our main concern is what we need to do, and what we need to do to make ourselves better for conference.”
The Huskies will have to maintain this attitude and cut back on their mistakes, as they prepare to face more tough competition at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla., April 4 and 5. Hart feels the team will need another strong performance against tough competition to help in the push toward conference, he said.
