Terrier Women Picked to Defend Conference Title in Preseason Poll
December 1, 2009 | Men's Track & Field
Dec. 1, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Boston University women’s indoor track and field team has been picked to finish first in the league standings, according to the preseason coaches poll released by the America East office on Tuesday. The Terriers garnered six of a possible nine first-place votes in the poll. The Terrier men are slated for fifth in the men’s preseason coaches’ poll.
The women front a tight-knit trio of teams atop the preseason poll, amassing 62 total points over Albany’s 56 and New Hampshire’s 52. Albany received two of the remaining first-place votes while New Hampshire received one. Maine (35) is picked to finish fourth and is followed closely by Vermont (31), Binghamton (30) and Stony Brook (29). UMBC (20) and Hartford (9) round out the preseason standings.
Defending champion Albany sits atop the men’s preseason rankings, garnering eight of nine first-place votes and 64 total nods. New Hampshire captured the last first-place vote and stands second behind Albany with 52 points, and three ahead of Binghamton (49) in third. UMBC collected 41 votes and sits just ahead of BU, which earned 39 votes in fifth place. Maine (29) and Vermont (25) are the closest schools behind BU and Stony Brook (17) and Hartford (8) are the final two teams in the poll.
While the loss of All-American Tahari James will have a sizeable effect on the BU women’s sprint and jump squads, head coach Robyne Johnson is confident that the athletes on the 2009-10 roster will still be able to score significant points. Leading the pack in the sprints will be junior Whitney Ford and sophomore Shelby Walton, and Johnson believes that by competing against each other, Walton and Ford can push one another to up point totals for the team. Jumpers Karly Neveu and Edwina Clark return to provide a veteran presence to the jumping corps and distance runners Katie Matthews and Sarah Mosser will help the Terriers maintain a balanced attack throughout the indoor season.
Two throwers, Dan Withrow and Jan Bicanic, make up one of the most talented tandems amongst conference throwers and will be counted on to score points through the indoor schedule. Eric Ashe, back from an injury that hindered his 2008-09 track season, leads a talented group of distance runners and sprinter Joel Senick fronts a sprint group that is re-stocked after an injury-plagued 2008-09 campaign.
BU will benefit from home field advantage during the indoor season as every event after the New Year, save the Battle of Beantown in February and the ECAC Championship for the women, will be held at the Boston University Track and Tennis Center. BU kicks off its indoor season at the Jay Carisella Invitational at the Reggie Lewis Center on Dec. 5, followed by the Harvard Open the following weekend. Three mini-meets dot the schedule at the TTC before a multi-team meet on Jan. 14, and the Terrier Invitational on Jan. 29. The Valentine Invitational will be held the weekend of Feb. 12 and is followed by the America East Championships and the New England Championships on consecutive weekends.
The women’s ECAC Championship will be held at the Reggie Lewis Center while BU will host the IC4A Championship on March 6-7.
