If there’s one Northeastern athlete who hasn’t disappointed this season, it’s shot-putter Nate Hunter of the men’s track team.
Hunter, a junior, has had a remarkable run with the Huskies this year. His latest accomplishment came last Saturday when he qualified for the NCAA championship by finishing fifth in the East Regional with a throw of 60 feet, 8.5 inches.
Having already participated in March’s indoor championships, Hunter will have a try at the outdoor championships June 10 to 13 in Fayetteville, Ark. His seventh-place finish in March on a 61 feet, 4.75-inch throw earned him All-American status for this season.
During the indoor season, Hunter won both the New England and Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A) indoor championship and repeated the victory in the New England outdoor competition in early May. He also added a second-place finish in the IC4A championship later in the month.
His other victories and accomplishments have piled up this year:’ first in the University of South Florida Quad Meet in Tampa, Fla., where he also finished sixth in the discus; first at the Texas Relays; first at the Solomon Husky Invitational; first in the shot put and discus at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship.
For an athletically small school like Northeastern, Hunter has been a hulking presence on the national stage. The six competitors who finished ahead of him at the NCAA indoor championship went to Arizona State, Minnesota, Arizona, Florida and Kentucky. The five that finished behind him came from Auburn, Iowa, Tennessee, UCLA and Virginia. Almost none of the events at the entire competition featured an athlete from a mid-major school like NU, making Hunter’s run all the more incredible.
As Northeastern’s eighth track and field participant in the NCAA championship since 2002, Hunter is continuing in a strong line of track and field athletes at Northeastern.
Hunter was even profiled in a May 7 Boston Globe article, in which he said he had thrown practice throws close to 20 meters, which is more than 65 feet. Auburn’s Cory Martin won the 2008 NCAA shot put championship with a 66 feet, 9.25 inch throw, and if Hunter could approach that he would give the Huskies a certain rarity:’ a national champion. And if he doesn’t quite make the mark this year, he’ll have all of next season to continue improving.
Head coach Sherman Hart deserves credit for bringing in athletes like Hunter; Vinny Tortorella (class of 2003) who finished seventh in the hammer throw and weight throw his senior year; Derek Anderson, who in his last season finished eighth in the shot put in 2006; and Zara Northover (class of 2007) who was the 2007 ECAC shot put champion along with a handful of others throughout the ’90s on both the men’s and women’s who have been able to deliver the Huskies elite results.
Though track doesn’t grab the headlines like some other sports, it says something about the athletic program, the school and Hart that high-level track and field athletes continue to come to NU. Hopefully, Hunter can push the bar even higher when he competes at the NCAA Championship, but the special thing about him is that even if he doesn’t, there’s still another shot at it next year.

‘- Jonathan Raymond can be reached at [email protected].