Track and field breaks records in Florida, North Carolina

Track+and+field+breaks+records+in+Florida%2C+North+Carolina

Chris Butler

Three school records were broken last weekend as the Northeastern men’s and women’s track and field teams split their athletes between relays in Gainesville, Florida, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Fourth-year Kerri Ruffo set the program record in the women’s 10,000-meter in North Carolina with a time of 35:22.15, beating her own school record of 36:05.04 set in 2015.

Fifth-year Kyle Darrow placed sixth in the 100-meter in Florida with a time of 10.42, breaking the school record set the previous weekend by first-year Donatien Djero, who ran the 100 this past weekend in 10.68 seconds.

Darrow also competed in long jump, placing third with a jump of 7.49 meters.

The men’s 4×100 meter relay, consisting of second-year Naukym Morton, fourth-year Dametrius O’Connor, Darrow and Djero, broke the program record with a time of 40.00, placing 10th.

“As coaches we can prep them as much as we want to but it’s up to them to execute,” head coach Tramaine Shaw said. “We trained them in a way that would allow them to take advantage and run really, really well at these meets.”

In North Carolina Saturday, fourth-year thrower Eric Mellusi earned a gold medal in discus with a throw of 35.97. Mellusi also placed ninth in hammer and 12th in shot put.

Other top throwers for Northeastern were fourth-years Connor Fugere, who placed seventh in the men’s hammer with a throw of 56.91, and Ryan Kim, who placed third in the men’s shot put with a throw of 16.35. On the women’s side, second-year Leeyan Redwood threw 14.62 in shot put, earning seventh place.

“Raleigh Relays is known to have phenomenal distance races … and a really strong throwing field,” Shaw said. “The Florida Relays is one of the premier sprint meets.”

More top-twenty finishers over the weekend include fourth-year Brooke Wojeski in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, fourth-year Nick Fofana in the 110-meter hurdles and the 4×400 meter relay team made up of first-year Quinn Litherland and second-years Austin Lin, Brandon Mooner and David Adams. Adams also competed in the 400-meter hurdles and placed 12th.

Over the course of the weekend, Northeastern athletes posted eight new personal records, or PR’s.

“I think we did really good,” said third-year Patrice Williams, who earned a personal record of 53.55 in the women’s 400-meter dash. “We had so many PR’s and school records broken. It was just really cool to watch happen during those two days.”

With the cold weather Boston has to offer, the athletes rarely practice outside, giving them an extra challenge to overcome compared to their southern competitors.

“The weather is always a challenge that we have here in the Northeast,” Shaw said. “For our athletes, running outdoors is completely different than running indoors … A different mental game, different race techniques.”

Despite these challenges, the athletes stay open-minded to the adaptations they have to make in order to perform at a competitive level, Shaw said.

“It’s all a mental thing for track,” Williams said. “It kind of pushes us to do better.”