By Jeff Powalisz
A re-energized Northeastern men’s track team, including its fair share of talented underclassmen, made its presence felt Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Center.
A host of great performances highlighted the season-opening Husky Winter Carnival, which included runners from around the region including Brandeis, Fitchburg, Tufts and Maine.
Freshman Obaro Emenike (6.46) and Steven Langton (6.55) finished 1-2 in the 55-meter dash to start off the Husky drive.
In the 200-meter dash, Lowell’s Clint Cooper outshined all other runners with a 22.50 time, but Emenike again rose for the occasion with a second-place finish (22.75).
Junior Idris Payne finished in first in the 400, as his 48.18 time beat out Lowell’s Ryan Leger (49.65).
“I was just very happy that the meet went on with the conditions outside,” said coach Sherman Hart. “We had about 12 teams out of 30 compete and our guys ran very well.”
Freshman Jose Fernandez (800-meter run, 1:57.78) and sophomore Tom Pratt (1,000-meters, 2:33.93) gained first-place recognition for Northeastern and Jared Paul (12th, 9:04.68) was the highest for the Huskies in a deep 3,000-meter field led by Quinnipiac’s Thomas Martin at 8:26.40.
In the 4×400-meter relay, Fernandez, Pratt, Payne and Dalton outshined all other runners with a close victory time of 3:20.15. Lowell finished in second at 3:20.98, just behind the Huskies, but well ahead of third-place Tufts (3:27.69).
“The 4×400 went very well,” Hart said. “Jose and Tom were substituted in and we still did well. That shows our depth when we can substitute in and still win.”
Freshman Carlos Rivera, Andy Silvia, Tim Chan and Richard were a strong quartet in the 4×800 relay with a second-place time of 8:21.13. Lowell won the event with a potent finishing time of 8:03.19.
The Huskies continued their strong showing in the field events where a host of other high finishes kept the momentum going.
Chad Barboza and Christian Tirella were second and third in the high jump, respectively, at 6 feet apiece, as Maine’s Christopher Warren took home first place recognition at six feet two.
Aaron Hill, Mike Couch and Ryan Cahill had perhaps the Huskies’ most defining show of the day when they placed 1-2-3 in the pole vault. At 15-06, and then 15 feet for second and third place, the group proved to be NU’s depth in the event. In the long jump, Fred Jones of Tufts was first at 22-02.25, ahead of Huskies’ top finishers Roscel Lopez-Pitts (third, 21-11.00) and Charlie Van Lam (fifth, 21-10.00).
Junior Derek Anderson, the defending New England Indoor shot put champion, finished first at 53-00.25. Rounding out Northeastern’s success that day was Anderson, again in the weight
