Four players from Suffolk University’s indoor track and field teams broke school records at the John Thomas Terrier Classic Jan. 26 and 27.
Junior Thomas Novy broke the school record in the 5-kilometer run by completing it in 14:49.42.
“I didn’t even know I broke the record until my coach told me after the fact. To be the first person in Suffolk history to go under 15 minutes in the indoor 5K, that was just a very special moment,” said Novy.
Novy believes that performances like this show just how good of a job coach Will Feldman has been doing at coaching the team.
“It’s been really exciting and we’ve been loving the energy around the team. From Sydney Fogg breaking a school record, Emily Concepcion running that incredible 58-second 400-meter performance, it just shows that what our coaches are doing is working,” said Novy. “The training they set out for us is working, but not only that, it shows that we want it.”
Novy’s teammate, senior captain Sydney Fogg, broke the school record in the 1-kilometer run with a time of 3:04.55.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to break the record, I didn’t go into the race with that being my plan, but now I just want to go faster,” said Fogg.
While also breaking this school record, Fogg crushed her own personal record in the 1 kilometer run by about 12 seconds.
“I thankfully am much healthier right now than I was at the time [of my previous personal record]. I was dealing with an injury at that point, so to be healthy definitely helped. I think I’ve developed as an athlete a lot since then, and have built a better mental game which has also definitely helped,” said Fogg.
Although only four runners broke school records last week, Fogg gives a lot of credit to the entire team for how well they performed.
“I definitely was very inspired by all of my teammates who competed last weekend. I think we all love to root for each other. Watching each other succeed is super fun and definitely motivational for sure,” said Fogg.
With their record-breaking performances, Novy and Fogg both qualified for the NCAA New England Regionals.
“They have the experience to be able to handle a big competition like that. I’m really excited and we’ve really built this season for them to peak and run their best at regionals. I think they still have a lot left in the tank, and we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what they’re capable of,” said Feldman.
Although breaking a school record is a huge accomplishment, both Fogg and Novy are putting that aside to prepare for the regionals.
“My teammates and I kind of have this rule of thumb where after a race you have 24 hours to either enjoy it or be upset by it and then move on,” said Novy. “I gave myself a little bit more than 24 hours, probably 36 to 48 hours to really enjoy that moment of being like ‘I ran this time and qualified for regionals,’ but now it’s time to get back to work.”
On top of Novy and Fogg’s performances, Suffolk saw two more records get broken: junior captain Emily Concepcion ran the 400-meter race in just over 58-seconds while freshman Owen Campbell broke the school’s pole vault record with a 3.75-meter clearance.
Suffolk’s indoor track and field teams will compete again Feb. 9 and 10 at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted at Boston University.Some athletes will also compete at the Lynn Ruddy invitational Feb. 10, hosted by Bowdoin College.
