Somerset, NJ - Change does not appear imminent this upcoming February when it comes to the top portion of the NEC women’s indoor track & field team standings.

The same two teams have topped the team standings at each of the past four NEC Indoor Women’s Championship meets find themselves occupying the top-two spots in this year’s preseason coaches’ poll.

Sacred Heart again captured the moniker of pre-meet favorite. The Pioneers, who pulled in seven first-place votes to win the poll, are in search of a fifth consecutive NEC women’s team title.

Having finished as the runner-up each of the past four seasons, LIU Brooklyn is expected to challenge for NEC supremacy again this winter. The Blackbirds, who last won the conference crown in 2011, earned two top nods to take second place in the predicted order-of-finish.

Central Connecticut, which has eclipsed the 70-point mark during each of its past two NEC indoor championship appearances, pulled in the lone remaining first-place vote while taking third in the poll.

Fairleigh Dickinson, which took third place at last year’s meet, finished fourth in the 2018 preseason voting ahead of Mount St. Mary’s in fifth.

Keystone State rivals Saint Francis U and Robert Morris were pegged in sixth and seventh, respectively.

Wagner, which lost 2017 NEC Most Outstanding Field Performer (Throws) Zhane Stones to graduation, slid into the eighth spot with Bryant and St. Francis Brooklyn rounding out the preseason poll in ninth and tenth, respectively.

All 10 teams will assemble at Ocean Breeze Complex in Staten Island, NY for the annual two-day championship meet on February 16 & 17, 2018. Seventeen event champions will be crowned in addition to the team title winner.

Fresh off his 2017 NEC Cross Country Coach of the Year award, Christian Morrison has once again built a deep roster with point-scoring potential across all of the 17 track & field championship events. As they’ve been in recent years, the Pioneers are strong in the distance department. Kate Svensen and Tara Connelly spearheaded SHU’s 1-2-4-5 finish at the cross country title meet in October and both women scored at the 2017 NEC Indoor Championships. The latter tallied 14 points across three events last February. In the field, senior Selina Sampieri returns to defend her pole vault title.

LIU Brooklyn’s roster is flooded with newcomers, but two key battle-tested point scorers are back in the mix. Stephanie Esogenwune totaled 13 points in the field last year en-route to winning the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer award. Meanwhile, Shantae McDonald, who won the 200m and 60 hurdles crowns last season, headlines a talented group of sprinters.

 
#NECTRACK FACTS
> Ocean Breeze Complex will provide the backdrop for the NEC Indoor Championships for the third year in a row. Prior to its arrival on Staten Island, the meet made a home at Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, MD for 16 years.

> LIU Brooklyn owns a league-high six team titles (2011, 2010, 2007, 2006, 2003, 2002).

> Only thrice since the turn of the millennium has the NEC team champion tallied at least 150 points and Sacred Heart is responsible for two of those occasions. The Pioneers scored 150 points in 2016 after a 162-point showing in 2015.

> FDU senior Mae Thompson has broken the 800m meet record two years in a row. Last February, Thompson ran the final in 2:11.60 to break the meet record (2:12.24) that she set in 2016.

> Fairleigh Dickinson’s Sara Kaye Freeman, who won the long jump and added a fourth-place showing in the triple jump as a sophomore, returns as the reigning NEC Most Outstanding Field Performer (Jumps).