BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
The Northeast Conference Track and Field Championships were doubly sweet for Monmouth University.
The Hawks hosted the championships (May 5-6) and won both the men’s and women’s titles. It was a record fourth straight championship for the men, and the women’s first since 2004. In addition, head coach Tom Compagni was named the NEC’s Men’s Coach of the Year for the seventh time and the Women’s Coach of the Year for the fifth time.
The teams took different paths to their titles. The men built up a solid lead on day one and maintained it throughout day two. They rolled up 168.50 points to win by more than 30 points over St. Francis (Pennsylvania), which ended the two-day meet with 135. The Hawks rode multiple scoring in several events to the dominating performance.
The women didn’t lock up the NEC until the final event of the meet, the 4×400, where their victory in a meet record 3:46.42 pushed them over St. Francis (Pennsylvania) 146.16-139. Long Island University was a close third (135).
Latasha Dickson (Matawan) anchored the Hawk women in their relay victory.
“The women overcame a lot of adversity and pulled together for an awesome effort this weekend,” said Compagni. “We needed a lot of solid contributions from many different people, and that is exactly what this team did in order to win.”
On the way to their record fourth straight title, the Hawk men scored 108.50 points on day two to win the title going away.”
“We started out with a rocky first day,” said Compagni. “The team entered today with a championship attitude and worked together to get their fourth straight championship.”
Nick Williams (Adamstown, Md.) was the team’s lone winner on the first day. He and Victor Rizzotto (Southern Regional) went one-two in the javelin, with Williams getting off a throw of 65.16 meters. Both Williams and Rizzotto (57.62) achieved NCAA Regional qualifying marks.
The Hawk throwers came up with big points in the discus, with Larry Lundy (Friendsville, Pa.), Christian Keller (Matawan) and Ed Skowronski (Raritan) earning third, fourth and fifth.
High jumper Fabrice St. Elme was second in the high jump, clearing 2.01 meters.
On the track, Craig Segal (Holmdel) started the competition off with a second place in the 10,000 (32:06.1).
Williams and Skowronski picked up gold on the second day. Williams collected his second NEC title in the shot put (55-10 1/2) while Skowronski won the hammer with an NCAA Regional qualifying throw of 206-9.
Keller was eighth in the shot put and fourth in the hammer. Kyle Hirschklauss (Morristown) was second in the shot put and Ryan Connell was third in the hammer, as Monmouth’s throwing depth piled up the points.
Martin Suarez picked up gold on the track for Monmouth, wining the 3,000 steeplechase (9:25.24). Teammates Matt Caporaso (Old Bridge) and Randy Hadzor (Lafayette, N.Y.) were fourth and fifth.
David Gaines (Colts Neck) ran a personal best 1:51.43 for the 800 meters in finishing second. He achieved an IC4A qualifying mark.
Segal came back to take second in the 5,000 (15:11.96), with Suarez fifth.
Peter Forgach (Red Bank Catholic) was sixth in the 1,500 (4:04.23).
Dan Tamburini (Ocean Township) and Michael Bucceri (Raritan) were fifth and sixth in the pole vault (13-1 1/2 and 12-1 1/2 respectively).
The 4×400 relay team of Michaelle Losey (Piscataway), Illiana Blackshear (West Orange), Crystal Stein (Stewartstown, Pa.) and Dickson etched their name in Hawk lore with their championship-clinching win. That was the second of two relay meet records set by the Hawks. The 4×100 team of Tisifenee Taylor (Woodbury) was named the Most Valuable Performer after winning the long jump in a meet record 6.28 meters and the 100-meter dash (12.24), taking second in the 100 hurdles and helping out the 4×100 team.
Dickson won the 400 intermediate hurdles (1:00.85), qualifying for the ECAC, and was second in the 400.
Monmouth’s sprinters were the big points scorers: Deanna Paulson (Washington Township) was fifth in the 100 behind Taylor and sixth in the 200, and Losey, Stein and Blackshear were fourth, sixth and seventh in the 400, giving the team four place-winners.
In the 1,500, Caitlin Lynams (Sparta) was fifth, Meredith Mally (Hamilton West) was eighth in the 5,000 and Jessica Jones (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) was fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase.
Brittany Gibbs (Old Bridge) was sixth in the triple jump (35-9 1/2).