Saturday marked the season opener for the Boston University track and field teams, as both the men’s and women’s squads competed for the first time against three other Division I schools at the BU Track and Tennis Center.
There was no total team points system registered during the meet to determine an overall winner, but BU, Boston College, Northeastern University and Dartmouth College agreed to post head-to-head results for their events.
“I thought it was a tremendous start for both of our teams,” said BU director of track and field Robyne Johnson. “We’ve been training all fall, and this really kind of shows the fruits of our labor. They’ve been working hard, and it’s hard to keep training for month after month. It was a great situation for a lot of our kids, and it just worked out really well.”
The women’s team put together a solid overall performance in its season-opening meet. The Terriers were led by junior sprinter Christy Wood, who was first overall in the 300-meter dash with a time of 38.69, 0.5 seconds better than the second-place finisher.
Also running well for the women’s team was senior Gemma Acheampong, who picked up right where she left off last year, when the Waterbury, Connecticut native set a school record in the 100m dash (11.61 seconds) at the Patriot League Championships in May. Acheampong finished first in the 60m dash for the Terriers, crossing the finish line in 7.49 seconds, an indoor school record. Sophomore Toria Levy also performed well, finishing third in the 60m hurdles with a time of 19:02.
“In the 60m hurdles, we had five kids in the top 10,” Johnson said. “These were all personal records.”
As for the men’s team, the Terriers edged out the Eagles in the dual meet, while settling for a tie with Dartmouth and losing to the Huskies. The star of the meet was sophomore sprinter Cameron Williams, who came in first place in the 200m dash with an impressive time of 21.20 seconds, another indoor school record.
Not to be outdone, senior Ethan Knight won the shot put for the Terriers with a throw of 16.29 meters, while junior Reuben Horace, the defending Patriot League champion, finished in second place in the event with a throw of 19 meters.
Senior Nikolaos Farmakidis was also impressive in the pole vault event, winning it with a 4.8 meter performance.
Johnson had trouble talking about just one person’s performance and said she was impressed with many athletes on both teams.
“There were a few members of our team with great meets. I couldn’t narrow it down to one,” she said. “Reuben Horace in the men’s weight throw, Ethan Knight with the shot, of course Cameron Williams in the 200 breaking our school record and Gemma Acheampong in the 60[m] breaking the school record were all great to see.”
Both teams will have a long break before any more competition, as the men’s and women’s squads will next compete on Jan. 22 when BU hosts the Four-Way Meet at the Track and Tennis Center.
“We’ll come back after the break and have a multi-team meet,” Johnson said. “We’re going to see how everybody is coming back off the break and see how they are, kind of assess everything, then really get ready for the [John Thomas] Terrier Classic and the Patriot League [Indoor Track and Field Championship] meet.”
Nick is currently writing for the Boston Hockey Blog. In the past, he has served as associate sports editor, and has covered men's and women's cross-country, women's soccer, men's basketball, and men's lacrosse for the Daily Free Press. You can keep track of Nick's exciting life by following him on Twitter at @nikfraz14
