PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Senior Samantha McKosky (Deep River) defended her Little East Conference championship in the mile, and ran the anchor to ensure that the 4x800 meter relay defended theirs, as well, at the LEC Indoor Track & Field Championships Saturday at the Bank of New Hampshire Field House on the Plymouth State University campus.
With a time of 5:13.10, McKosky became the first female to win back-to-back LEC titles in the mile since 2010-11, and later helped the 4x800 relay win for the second season in a row. McKosky took the baton from senior Christina Gosselin (Old Saybrook) with the Warriors holding a four-second lead, and stretched the final margin to 19 seconds over her 800 meter run as the Warriors posted a winning time of 10:04.61. Sophomore Lauren Bresson (Roxbury) and senior r Haley Knox (Bristol) ran the first and second legs of the relay.
For the men, third-seeded senior Chidebe Ndibe (West Hartford) captured his first LEC title when he recorded a personal-record mark of 22-0 ¼ (6.71m) that equaled the fourth-best mark in program history. Ndibe became the first Eastern male to win the LEC long jump title – fifth overall -- since Dave Pavia in 2006. Prior to this year, Ndibe had placed fifth in the event last year, third as a sophomore and seventh as a freshman.
In all, 12 Eastern individuals were accorded All-LEC recognition by either winning an event or taking second place.
In addition to McKosky in the mile and 4x800 relay, Ndibe in the long jump, and Bresson, Knox and Gosselin in the 4x800, other second-place finishers included Knox in the 1000, juniors Rachel Osak (Portland) at 5000 meters, Hayley Brodeur (Old Saybrook) in the 400, sophomore Jasmine Conduah (Fairfield) in the high jump, and freshmen Ryan Escoda (Newtown) in the 3000 and Christopher Weir (Norwich) in the pole vault.
The No. 3 seed, Knox was timed at 3:08.57 in the 1000 – just a second off her program record set last Friday at Boston University; also seeded third, Weir registered a PR of 13-9 ¼ (4.20m); Conduah (4-11/1.50m) and Brodeur (1:01.40) were also seeded third.
Both the Eastern women and men placed fourth in their eight-team fields. For the women, it was their third straight fourth-place finish, while the men equaled their highest finish in the last nine years. Last year, they placed seventh.
