The track and field team will soon finish their second season with great success. On April 28 the ENC team had their last event of the season.

Since the program’s start in 2016, it continues to grow. According to Coach Christina Saint-Pierre, the team has become “a family.” Together with Coach Brian Lawrence, she has led the team since the beginning of the program.

The track and field season does not have to start on a specific date, so the coaches started the pre-season in October and held it until Christmas break. This semester, the regular season started in January and ending on April 28 with the CCC Championships event at Roger Williams University. In total, the coaches have 18 weeks to work with the team.

At the Umass-Dartmouth Corsair Classic event (April 7) the team ranked 9 out of 12 teams. After that event, Graduate student Joanna Joseph and Freshman Isis McFadden were awarded as “CCC Field Athlete of the Week” and “CCC Track Rookie of the Week” respectively.

This was the first time either athlete received a CCC weakly award. Joseph said she was “proud that the work that we both (Coach Saint-Pierre and herself) put in was noticed,” but McFadden was shocked, saying she “was not expecting it.”

With 4.9 meters McFadden reached sixth in the long jump at the Umass-Dartmouth event. With a time of 13.53 seconds, she finished eighth in the 100-meter dash. Usually, she competes in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 4×100 meter relay, and in the long jump which is her favorite event to compete in.

McFadden, a Pennsylvania resident, started track in middle school because “everyone in my neighborhood motivated me to start track and field because they believed I was a fast runner and that I could do something extraordinary with it.”

Joseph, who is pursuing a Master of Science in Management, mainly throws shot put and recently began to throw discus. With a throw of 9.84 meters, she placed fourth at the Umass-Dartmouth Corsair Classic event.

She says that she “spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to better myself in terms of technique and skill.” She believes that Coach Saint-Pierre was essential to her victories.
For Coach Saint-Pierre the biggest goal is “using our talents to show glory to God, letting people know who we are, and wanting to invite people to become a part of that family.” Initially, the team started with 23 people, but the team currently has 18 athletes (nine males, nine females).

Coach Saint-Pierre explains, “Being a student-athlete is hard. You have to be hungry, stay hungry, and be 100 percent dedicated to putting in all the work to go through the journey.” Both Joseph and McFadden have shown they are ready to do just that.