By Dan Canastra
The Northeastern men’s track team captured five first place finishes at the Husky Spring Open last Saturday at the Solomon Track in Dedham.
Idris Payne, a sophomore, picked up the first victory of the outdoor season for the Huskies, finishing first in the 200-meter race.
“The 200 felt good because I ran a personal best, [21.34 seconds] I felt strong during and after the race,” said Payne.
Tom Pratt and Bryan McCants finished first and second in the 800-meter race, with times of 1:56.0 and 1:56.96, respectively. The Huskies also earned the top four spots in the pole vault, with Dave Wilkes leading the way. Vinny Tortorella, a team co-captain, threw the hammer farther than anyone else in the field, and junior Chad Barboza finished first in the high jump.
NU coach Sherman Hart felt that last weekend was a stepping-stone toward success that could come in this young track season.
“It was a pretty good start toward trying to build toward the championship,” he said.
The Huskies head into the spring season as the defending America East champions. They have an array of talent that could help them get back to the top again this year. If the team wants to repeat it must do better than the third place finishes in the America East and New England Championships during the indoor campaign.
“I feel we have some work to do, we have to get our championship attitude back. We have to get hungry,” said Hart.
Tortorella, a senior, leads the team with a great deal of experience. He will be the head of what Hart refers to as the strongest aspect of the team, the throwing events. Tortorella will be throwing the discuss, shot put, and hammer this spring. His best event is the hammer, where he finished 15th last year at the NCAA Championship.
Derek Anderson, a sophomore, is right on Tortorella’s footsteps. He is coming off an excellent winter season where he earned top finishes in the shot put in seven out of the nine meets he competed in. With an extra throwing event added in the spring season, look for Tortorella and Anderson to rack up points for the Huskies.
Hart said that senior McCants has the potential to help the team win this spring. He is a sprinter who is especially good at the hurdles. McCants finished first in four different meets last spring in the 400-meter hurdles.
Hart has high hopes in sophomore’s Bismark Osei and Payne. Osei, who is a defensive back for the Northeastern football team, specializes in sprints. Osei is new to the team as of last winter, and since then has earned himself two first place finishes in the 60-meter dash. Payne has been tearing up the track thus far this year, earning numerous first place finishes in the 200 and 400-meter races, in addition to setting two Northeastern records during the indoor season.
Hart feels that the team is strong in almost all areas. The strongest part of the team is in the throwing events. Hart is confident in his long and short sprinters.
The one area of the team that concerns Hart is in the long distance races. In last week’s meet the Huskies didn’t finish in the top ten of any long distance event.
But concerns are far from Hart’s mind following last year’s victory.
“We’re defending champions and we will remain that until someone beats us,” he said.
The Huskies look to earn back-to-back championships starting this weekend when they will be competing in North Carolina at the Duke Invitational. The gun sounds at 9 a.m.
