The Northeastern women’s track team opened its winter season on an impressive note Saturday, taking 12 of 18 events in the Husky Carnival held at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury.
Most notably, NU newcomer Aquilla Williams-Judge placed first in the 55-meter hurdles by more than a half of a second, and triumphed in the long jump by more than eight inches.
While the results are impressive in their own right, add in the fact that Williams-Judge won a pentathalon on Friday in Rhode Island before racing back to Boston, and the achievement grows tenfold.
“She wasn’t really scheduled to run on Saturday,” NU coach Sherman Hart said of the Wheaton College transfer, who was an NCAA Division III National Champion before coming to Huntington Avenue. “She wanted to come back and run anyway. She’s just an outstanding athlete. She’s local and we’ve known about her for awhile. Last year, Wheaton scored 50 points in the Division III Nationals, and she had 25 of them. We knew she was coming. I’ve known Aquilla for years.”
In addition to Williams-Judge’s feat, sophomore Zara Northover placed first in the shot put. Northover’s throw of 50-4 already qualifies her for the NCAA Championship meet.
“She had a good summer because she competed for the Jamaican National Team and finished second at the Pan-Am games. She’s really trying to go to the Olympics next year along with Ahndraea [Allen] and a couple of others.”
This winter, Hart’s group is gunning to defend its America East conference and New England championship belts.
“It was a great start to the season,” Hart said. “I think the worst part about it was the snow. We expected 30 teams and got about 12. We probably would’ve done the same thing if there were the 30 teams there, too.
“Our times were great for the first meet, but they aren’t going to win down the line with those times,” Hart added. “I think that we need to get a little bit sharper. Thanksgiving kind of hurt us, because I gave them the week off, so they hadn’t touched a track in about four or five days. They’re in championship mode competitively, we just have to get sharper time-wise.”
Janel Kozlowski and Tina Ibraheem finished off a Husky sweep of the jumping events, with Kozlowski’s leap of 5-6 tops in the high jump, and Ibraheem’s mark of 10.79 meters finishing as the best in the triple jump.
Northeastern transfer Laura Chmielewski placed first in the pole vault with a jump of 12 feet. NU juniors Jenn Curato and Courtney MacLaren tied for fourth in the event as well, with a height of 10-6.
Sophomore standout Jordine Kimbrel led an impressive band of Northeastern sprinters, winning the 200-meter dash with a time of 25 seconds, a full 1.25 seconds ahead of the closest finisher.
Junior co-captain Ahndraea Allen then took first in the 400-meter run, nearly a second ahead of Lowell’s Jill Thibodeau. Freshman Shanae Henry took second in the 55-meter dash and Northeastern owned both the 4×400-meter relay and the 4×800 meter relay, winning the events by a combined 11 seconds.
