STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.— The LIU Brooklyn women's track and field team currently sits in fourth place at the 2019 Northeast Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships after the opening day of competition at Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex.
 
The Blackbirds registered 14 points in the opening day, led by a first-place finish in the high jump event by junior Angeli Andre with a personal best and ECAC qualifying mark of 1.70 meters.  Andre was the lone athlete to clear the final mark of 1.70 to earn the first medal of the weekend.
 
LIU also earned four points in the long jump event as junior Stephanie Esogenwune recorded a personal-best mark of 5.58 meters to finish fifth overall.
 
Majority of the morning at Ocean Breeze was spent on qualifying heats in advance of tomorrow's final events.  The Blackbirds have three runners competing in the 60-meter finals after Ashley Blackwell, Toni Glatz and Michaela Nelis earned qualifying times in the event.
 
Senior Eugenie Hue earned a qualifying spot in the mile run as she finished third in the preliminary heats with a time of 5:12.69. She also qualified for the 800 meter final with the top preliminary time of 2:20.00.
 
The Blackbirds also placed three runners in tomorrow's 400-meter final as Andre, Glatz and freshman Jasmine Douglas Grant placed within the top eight. LIU followed that up with three more runners qualifying for the 500 meter final as senior Cayla Coleman, sophomore Tara Hernandez and Ekenedilichukwu Christine Onyechi earned qualifying times.
 
LIU ended its afternoon with three qualifiers in the 200-meter dash as Blackwell, Glatz and Andre finished within the top-four preliminary times. Blackwell ran a ECAC qualifying time of 24.85.
 
Mount St. Mary's leads the field after day one with 27 team points. Robert Morris and Fairleigh Dickinson are positioned just ahead of LIU with 20 and 19 points respectively.
 
The final day of the NEC Indoor Championships begins tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. The action from the track finals will air on NEC Front Row.