Manchester, NH (March 28, 2025) – The Northern Essex men's and women's track and field teams opened their spring campaign on Friday at the SNHU Spring Invitational and saw three individuals hit national meet qualifying standards across four events.
Maci Abbatessa (Danvers) led the Knights on Friday as she picked up national qualifying marks in both the discus and shot put. She placed 7th in the discuss with a throw of 29.4 meters and finished 9th in the shot put with a toss of 9.93 meters. She was the highest finishing two year college participant in both events.
Derick Pierre Paul (Lawrence) picked up a national qualifying height in the high jump as he cleared 1.8 meters to place eighth in the meet.
Edwin SamMbaka (Paris, FR) picked up the final national qualifying performance of the meet as he placed second in his heat of the 200 meter dash with a time of 23.72 to hit the national mark in his debut on the track.
The Knights saw several other strong performances to open the season as Karl Wolfgang (Douala, CM) was the top two year finished in both the men's shot put and discus with mark of 10.82 meters and 31.73 respectively.
Full meet results available are available here
The Knights will return to the track next Saturday when they travel to the Jonathan Tyman Invitational at Gordon College.