By Bradley Rosenberg

Northeastern grabbed third at the New England Championship Saturday with a total of 80 points, but coach Sherman Hart was not pleased.

“I wasn’t really happy that the men took third,” he said. “We should have been done a tad bit better and at least gotten second.”

Still, Hart recognizes that there were some outstanding performances at the meet, and that teams such as UMass-Lowell, who barely beat NU for second with a point total of 84, and UConn, who snatched first place with a score of 166 points, are hard to overcome.

“The people we had competed well, but we just didn’t have enough depth,” Richard Hart said. “We didn’t have the eight people needed to score in the relays. The [runners we have] are young and they’ll get better, but we just don’t have enough veterans to win in the field event.”

Of the people that both coaches praised as “competing well” are senior thrower Vinny Tortorella, who won the weight throw with a distance of 68’9.75″ and got second in the shot put, sophomore thrower Derek Anderson, who won the shot put with a distance of 58’7.5″ and got second in the weight throw, sophomore runner Idris Payne, who took second in the 400 with a time of 47.73 seconds, senior runner Bryan McCants, who took second in the 500 with a time of 1:03.22, and freshman runner Tom Pratt, who showed great promise in the 1,000-meter run.

“[Payne] did a great job to get second,” Richard Hart said. “He’s a tough, tough competitor.”

Payne is disappointed with his performance, however.

“I was sick, and it was hard for me to breathe when I was running,” he said, “but I still wanted to get first. I guess I can’t get everything.”

While Payne feels dissatisfied with his run on Saturday, he feels very proud of the accomplishments of other team members like Tortorella and Anderson.

“They had confidence going into the meet and they performed with that confidence,” said Idris. “They did well.”

McCants, on the other hand, feels happy about some of his teammates’ performances and as well as his own.

“I think everyone is starting to come together,” he said. “Idris, Tom … are running well. We’ve been training really hard, and it was just a good meet for me.”

As for the disheartening placing that the team received, McCants sees it as a temporary thing.

“We performed okay,” he said. “We had some ups, we had some downs … but next week will be a good meet [because] we’re just ready to run. We’re just ready to go … together.”

Payne says he feels nervous about the IC4A championships next week, but that he’s “just going to run hard as usual.”

Meanwhile, Richard Hart isn’t worried.

“They’re a great group of kids,” he says, “and they’ve been competing at a high level. We’re hoping to be close to the top ten next weekend.”

The next meet takes place at Boston University on March 8 and 9.