With all the excitement surrounding the dominating Boston University basketball teams, the men’s and women’s track and field teams’ accomplishments easily could have been overlooked.
On Friday and Saturday, both teams competed and placed highly in the America East Indoor Track and Field Championships held at the BU Track and Tennis Center. The men’s team placed fourth out of nine teams, while the women’s team placed fifth out of 10.
The University at Albany took the conference title on the men’s side with 140.5 points while Northeastern University reigned supreme in the women’s competition with 179 points. Both squads captured their second-straight indoor championships with the victories.
Despite its youth, the men’s team was able to post 95 points with a mixture of outstanding performances by its upperclassmen and surprisingly impressive performances from its freshman and sophomores.
At the end of the competition, the Terriers had impressively compiled five first-place finishes, but had only won a combined four second- and third-place finishes.
Junior Andre Nacaxe took home the first blue ribbon of the day for the Terriers, winning the 500-meter dash (1:03.20). Senior Matt Adler took fourth in the same event with a time of 1.05.22, while sophomore Lucjan Zaborowski was just as sharp, placing second in the 400 (47.9).
Senior Jochen Dieckfoss continued his outstanding year, placing first in the one-mile run (4:08.03). Dieckfoss also took home the individual America East title – the fourth of his career – in cross country this past fall. Freshman Phil Shaw also grabbed third place (4:15.28) in the mile for the Terriers.
Other individual first place finishers included freshman Nick Goodman in the 800-meter run (1:54.17) – his first America East title – and senior Dan Coval in the 5,000-meter run (14:37.53). In the team races, the 4×400-meter relay team of Nacaxe, Zaborowski, Barry Graham and Matt Howard clocked in at 3:13.31 to take first before BU grabbed second in the 4×800 relay (7:40.69).
On the field, Junior Jeff McAulay placed third in the long jump competition, posting a personal best with a distance of 6.93 meters.
For the women, no Terrier took home a first place finish, but BU compiled 75 points by grabbing several second- and third-place finishes.
Sophomore Vicki Lopez started the day for the Terriers with a third-place finish in the 500-meter dash, crossing the line at 1:16.39. The team then nabbed some points with two more second-place times from freshmen – Abbey Sadowski in the 1,000-meter run (2:24.43) and Marisa Ryan in the 3,000-meter run (9:53.93).
Versatile sophomore Jessica Iannacci had a solid day, placing third in the 3,000-meter run (9:56.95) and second in the 5,000-meter run (17:06.62). Also in the 5,000, junior Laura Borrelli took fifth place (17:45.97).
In team events, the Terriers placed fifth in the 4×400 relay (3:57.78), fourth in the 4×800 relay (9:24.37) and third in the distance medley relay (12:06.73).
Senior Mary Ellen Bingham highlighted BU’s field events, leaping to second in the triple jump, averaging 12.22 meters, while junior Elisa Miller took sixth with an average of 11.33 meters.
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