After over two years of waiting to make their way back to competition, the Maryland Eastern Shore track team was back in action on January 15 as the squads made their way to New York for the annual Historic Black Colleges and Universities Battle.
 
Shaking the rust off while new faces got a feel for college competition, the Hawks men and women took third and fifth, respectively, in one of the most well know HBCU meets in the country.
 
"Experience was good," head coach Damion Drummond said. "There wasn't much hesitancy and I'm not sure if it was (since) it's a historic meet, lot of the folks who were there were familiar even with the freshman they saw familiar faces they saw from high school."
 
It was a different type of meet for the Hawks, with Drummond getting a feel for his new athletes that haven't been able to get in action since arriving to campus while seeing some familiar faces excel when expected.
 
The biggest highlight for the Shore was junior Joshua Goslee taking first in the men's pole vault, nearly clearing the Maryland Eastern Shore school record but finishing at 4.00m.
 
"He attempted what would have been a school record and didn't make it," Drummond said. "So where he topped off he probably would have been able to hit a PR but he went all the way from four meters to 4.30, it was like 'hey what do we have to lose' – at that point he was the only person jumping for like two rounds.
 
"He's ready, he's poised, he's strong."
 
On the women's side it was the Indya Hansley show, taking second in the shot with an 11.85m mark, which Drummond feels is just scratching the surface. Not just Hansley had a solid day, with Naomi English taking third in the long jump with a 5.18m performance.
 
"The women in the field events, Indya showed up big," Drummond said. "She's sticking to a whole other dimension in her mindset and wanted to be good, she's shown it in practice."
 
Even some rookies got in on the action, as Mackel Pierrilus took first in the high jump in his first ever collegiate action. The sophomore put up 1.82m in the high, while also putting up a respectable 6.33m in the long.
 
"Pierrilus did pretty well," Drummond said. "Winning his first collegiate event his first time out, that's a big deal and has way more room to improve."
 
Rounding out the top performers were sprinters Jahlanhnee Watkins and Radjae Reid in their runs. Watkins, a former jumper, "popped off" to Drummond in his 49.94 run during the 400m, while Reid made his way into both the 60m sprint and hurdle finals before a hamstring strain took him out of action.
 
It was a different showing for the two squads, as the men are laden with upperclassmen while the women are anchored around just a handful of seniors and one graduate student.
 
Despite the young core, Drummond says the best is yet to come as he held out senior Atinuke Shittu, waiting to unveil her in the triple at the upcoming home meet starting on January 28.
 
"I think she has a really strong chance of doing some stuff beyond the MEAC so we didn't jump her this weekend," Drummond said. "When you have athletes like that you can spend your time you can pick your time on when you want to release them - with her we can afford to be strategic."
 
Even those who didn't place or fell under expectations gave Drummond hope for the program, as it was an emotional post-meeting gathering. Normally a coach of winded speeches, the fifth-year coach knew the athletes across the rosters took the results to heart.
 
A usual family session was done in less than five minutes, even surprising the assistants with his quick words.
 
"They were already beating themselves up enough," Drummond said. "When they start doing that you know they have a concern themselves about how they're doing and we can go to training.
 
"It was an eye opener for us in a sense and for others it was like welcome back, it's an opportunity."
 
Taking a week off for training, the Shore will be back in action starting on Friday January 28, with qualifiers and other events on Saturday.