Northeastern sprinter Aquilla Williams-Judge doesn’t intimidate easily, but when the Wheaton College transfer showed up at the Reggie Lewis Center for her 60-meter hurdle race in the Adidas Boston Indoor Games Saturday, she was shaking in her proverbial boots.
The reason? Two-time Olympic gold-medalist Gail Devers.
“She was there when I got there, and when I saw her I said ‘Aquilla,’ and she looked at me and said ‘Sherman, there’s Gail Devers,'” NU coach Sherman Hart said. “She was nervous and about ready to pass out. It was nerve-wracking for her, she was announced eighth and the other seven runners in that event were all world class athletes and had won world titles at some point in their careers. It was a great experience for her.”
Williams-Judge finished eighth with a time of 8.75 seconds, while Devers won the event in 7.94.
The day before, in the Collegiate Division of the BIG, Williams-Judge and her mates made their mark, winning the 13-team meet — albeit not by much.
First-place NU (123.33 points) was followed by the University of South Florida (123) and the University of Connecticut (122) in a meet that came down the triple jump.
Northeastern needed just a point from Tina Ibraheem in the event, and that’s exactly what they got. Ibraheem heighted at 36 feet, just three quarters of an inch ahead of Albany’s Sarah Charles.
“It was nice for it to come down to Tina, it almost never does,” Hart said. “She told us she had it, and she got it. It was a great meet, I expected it to come down to the wire and for other teams to bring the house. It doesn’t get much closer than that, with South Florida, UConn within a point from first through third.
“South Florida was the only team to beat us last year and we knew they weren’t about to let a Northern team beat them,” Hart added. “But we did, so too bad. It was good for us, we needed to be tested. It didn’t look like we were going to win; we were down by 15 points for a bit and we just started chipping away at it.”
Yale (79.33), Boston College (62.83), Albany (53.5), Williams (40), Colgate (16.5), UMass-Amherst (15.5), S. Connecticut (10), New Haven (6), Stonehill (6) and UMass-Lowell (5) rounded out spots four through 13 at the meet.
All told, around 2,000 spectators — including President Richard Freeland — filled the Reggie Lewis Center for the event.
Williams-Judge, competing against her peers on Friday, excelled in the 55-meter hurdles and long jump while winning each.
In the 55, Williams-Judge won with a time of 7.94 seconds, while her long jump of 19-7.5 was also good for first place.
“I’ve known her since she was about knee-high, she’s a great addition and we’re happy to have her,” Hart said. “She had a great day, I can’t say enough about her.”
Northeastern also had impressive showings in the 55-meter dash, 1,000 meter run, and pole vault.
Ahndraea Allen won her first of two events in the 55, while teammate Shanae Henry took eighth in the event. In the 1,000, an event usually not the strength of Husky track, Amy Hicks (second, 2:56.86) and Stephanie Morrison (fifth, 3:00.2) teamed up for 12 crucial points. In the pole vault, one of the team’s strongest areas, Laura Chmielewski took first and Courtney MacLaren finished in a three-way tie for fourth. Zara Northover took second in the shot-put and third in the weight throw. NU sophomore Jordine Kimbrel took home the honors in the 400 as well for Northeastern.
Allen also won the 200-meter run with a time of 24.60 seconds, nearly a half-second ahead of the second place finisher.
Next week is the team’s final tuneup before the America East indoor championship, the Greater Boston Championship held at Harvard on Saturday starting at 2:30 p.m.
