The Central women’s track and field team took home their third straight Northeast Conference championship on Monday, Feb. 19. The Blue Devils were led by Most Valuable Performer and Most Outstanding Track Performer for Distance Brooke Morabito, who was responsible for three of CCSU’s six first-place finishes.
Morabito, a graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program, placed first in the 3000-meter race, finishing with a time of 9:46.33. She also won the 5000-meter race, finishing at 17 minutes, 56.5 seconds.
In addition to the solo wins, Morabito was part of the winning team in the Distance Medley Relay.
To top off her performance, she placed second in the mile with a time of 4:54.87, just .05 seconds behind Central teammate Ashley Dana.
Morabito’s contributions to her team were vital to CCSU’s three-peat, the first in program history.
Morabito was a part of all three championship squads and said it meant a lot to her to be able to contribute.
“It’s definitely really special,” she said. “It’s really cool that we were able to pull that together.”
Although she consistently churns out dominant performances meet-to-meet and season-to-season, Morabito said she doesn’t plan out her races.
“Doing a lot of races, I try to take it race-by-race,” she said. “People always ask me what my plan is going into a race, and I never know until 20 minutes before because I don’t want to get too stressed thinking about all the other races I have to do.”
As one might imagine, Morabito’s days are filled with running, but not always in a strict training regiment.
“I run a lot, and I do some cross-training, too,” she said. “… [I like] keeping it fun, like doing fun things with running.”
Morabito said she likes to look ahead and make long-term goals to help her stay motivated.
“This outdoor season, I’m hoping to make it to NCAA regionals,” she said.
As far as what comes next for Morabito, she said it remains to be seen.
“I would definitely like to try and make [running professionally] a thing,” she said. “I have a little bit of eligibility left, but I am definitely looking into it.”
