On the eve of the Beanpot final, the Boston University track and field team represented the Back Bay in the second annual ‘Battle of Beantown’ at the Gordon Track and Tennis Center on Harvard University’s campus. And although the track team squared off against the same schools as its ice-minded brethren, this time, Northeastern University, Boston College and Harvard University walked away superior.
BU’s men’s and women’s teams each finished in last place.
‘We really need to step it up,’ BU coach Robyne Johnson said. ‘We definitely didn’t do as well as we wanted.’
Boston College won the women’s meet, and Harvard won the men’s meet.
In the women’s race, BC finished with 143 points, Harvard finished with 132, Northeastern finished with 115, and BU finished with 114. And in the men’s race, Harvard finished with 169.5 points, Northeastern finished with 164, Boston College finished with 86.5, and BU finished with 83.
BU’s inability to accumulate points resulted from both a lack of good finishes and a failure to fill race positions.
‘Injuries to our athletes in certain events prevented us from filling entries,’ Johnson said. ‘On the women’s side, it was the mile and the four-by-eight [hundred-meter relay], most notably.’
The women’s team had no entries in the shot put, either.
This isn’t to say the meet didn’t have some uplifting moments.
BU senior Andrea Walkonen, the America East conference five-kilometer record holder, individually qualified for the NCAA Track and Field Championships after running a time of 9 minutes, 32.77 seconds in the 3,000-meter race. She beat the nearest runner-up, BC senior Mallory Champa, by 24 seconds.
Senior Edwina Clark won the long jump after leaping 5.9 meters. Junior Whitney Ford was the runner-up at 5.81 meters, and she won the triple long jump with three leaps totaling 11.93 meters.
For the men, senior Chadd Steinhauser won the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.26 seconds.
Sophomore Joel Senick, who last year set records in the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash, didn’t compete this year.
