In their final gear up for the Northeast Conference Championships, the Central Connecticut track and field team took on the David Hemery Valentine Invitational, where they secured several personal bests.

Entering the meet, head coach Eric Blake said the purpose was to prepare for next weekend’s championship meet.

“We raced a few in shorter races to sharpen them up for NEC’s. We had a few students take the weekend off to rest up for next weekend. It really depended on what’s best for the individual,” Blake said.

Earlier this season, Blake stressed the importance of the veteran core of the women’s team, which was on display Friday, day one of the event. Senior Dawn Hubbell finished the one-mile run in 5:11.83, beating her previous personal best by two seconds.

Junior, Taylor Davis set her personal best time in the 200-meter dash when she finished in 25.94. Davis also competed in the 60-meter dash, finishing 22nd out of 51 competing runners.

On the field side, junior Hailey Rospierski set a personal best in the long jump when she jumped 5.11 meters.

Though not setting a personal record, junior Megan Brawner finished 49th of 179 runners in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:15.40.

Blake called the veteran core “very consistent” and said his team is “very fortunate of the leadership.”

Though not a veteran, freshman Samantha Vasquez got in on the shattering of previous best times when she ran the 200-meter dash in 27.47, the same event Davis broke her own previous best.

On the men’s side, they set seven personal bests of their own. Sophomore Darius Wise contributed two, finishing the 60-meter dash in 7.13, good enough for a third-place finish out of 43 participants. Wise added a time of 22.30 in the 200-meter dash, also a personal record.

Freshman Qasim Danazumi also set a personal record in the 200, eclipsing his previous time by a second. His time of 22.74 was not far off that of his teammate.

The other Blue Devil that had two personal bests on the day was on the field side of things. Freshman Ed Radizon bested his distance in the shot put by almost an entire meter. Radizon also had a throw of 11.14 meters in the weighted throw.

Freshman Cam Whalen ran the 60-meter hurdles in 8.74, his personal best. Classmate Tim McNamara also notched a career-best in the 800-meter run.

The final Blue Devil to record a personal best was junior Andrew Flemming, who finished the 500-meter dash in just over a minute, finishing in 29th place out of 63 runners. Classmate, Richard Grudzwick, came home in 13th place. Though it was not a personal best, it was another strong showing for Grudzwick.

Both sides will next compete at the NEC Championships in Staten Island, NY.

“Anytime we go to NECs, we want to have our best team meet of the season. I feel we are ready to do that,” Blake said of the meet.

As for his team’s chances, Blake said “if the meet was scored off the seeds we would be in trouble but I feel our best meet is still ahead of us.”

The men will look to repeat as conference champions while the women look to win the conference for the first time since 2001.