For the Northeastern track teams, there really is no place like home. After all, it seems as though every time the Huskies come to their familiar grounds in Dedham, they can win at will.
Saturday, at the annual Solomon Invitational, the Huskies toasted five first place finishes, as well as many other top three performances.
A few of the victories almost seemed counter-dramatic, such as the 100-meter dash, the steeplechase and the high jump.
In the 100, sprinters Ebony Jack and Jordine Kimbrel battled for first place, but were in no real danger of finishing any lower. Kimbrel’s time of 12.16 bested her senior teammate by just three hundredth’s of a second, while it was nearly a half second better than competitors from other schools. That being the case, the times each runner ran weren’t even close to marks they are capable of hitting (Jack holds the meet record in the 100 with a time of 11.78 seconds).
The story was the same in the steeplechase (a 3,000-meter race where athletes hurdle water and wooden fences) as well. Senior Meaghan Shaw broke her own Northeastern record, and powered past the rest of the field by a full ten seconds.
“We’re looking for Shaw, Amber Cullen [distance], and Jessica Titus [throwing] to step up and really give us some depth when it comes time for the championship meets,” coach Sherman Hart said. “We think they can score us some points where we don’t usually score points in the America East, New England, and ECAC championships.”
Junior Janel Kozlowski’s victory in the high-jump was another case of an NU athlete simply being superior to her competition. Her jump of 5-8 was a full four inches higher than anyone else.
“I thought we ran well, but we still have some ways to go,” Hart said. “We didn’t seem as sharp as we should be right now, but I’ve still got another meet to get them ready for the end of the year. I think part of it might be that they know they can dominate when they want to in a meet like the Solomon Invite.”
NU’s 4×100-meter relay team snapped across the line in 46.95 seconds, almost a full three seconds ahead of second-place Wheaton College (49.56).
One surprise for the team, however, came with Amber Cullen in the 5,000 meter run. The sophomore distance runner cracked the 18-minute mark for the first time in her career.
“That’s huge for us,” Hart said. “Now, we have a few options with running Amber in the 1,500 or now the 5,000. Last year she set the pace for us at the AE meet and kickstarted our championship. I’m looking forward to having her be the same force for us this year.”
Next week, the team heads to the University of Pennsylvania for the Penn Relays, the world’s largest and oldest relay event.
“It’s showtime down there,” he said. “That’s all it is. This year, we’re good enough to be a part of the show, I’m really looking forward to it. Thursday the women run, and it’s supposed to be sunny for the first time in a long time at the Relays.”
Although last year Hart disliked how heavily he depended on runners like Jack and then-freshman Ahndraea Allen, he plans to run them hard again when the AE meet rolls around on May 3 through 4. Northeastern enters the meet as a heavy favorite after taking the America East Indoor championship, the New England Indoor championship, and a first-ever second place finish at the ECAC championship meet.
“Ebony has already approached me about running five events,” Hart said. “She’ll run at least four. We can’t go in thinking it’s going to be a cake walk. Everyone there will be gunning for us. After the indoor season we had, it would be tremendous for someone in our conference to put us away.”
Hart feels the team will be mentally prepared.
“They had a meeting last week to make sure everyone knew they need to step it up here at the end,” he said. “During the indoor season I think we might have snuck up on some teams, but now the secret is out.”
Starting Thursday, the lady runners will be at Penn for the relays. In two weeks, the team will travel to Orono, Maine for the conference championship.
