WINTHROP, Mass. – As the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) announced its inaugural indoor track & field awards, Emily Manfra of Suffolk picked up the first athlete of the week honor, the conference office unveiled Monday.
To start her senior season, Manfra, who hails from Stoneham, Massachusetts, produced the sixth-best 5K time in NCAA Division III this season even with an equipment malfunction at Boston University's Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener. The captain clocked in a school-record indoor 5K time of 17:41.49 even with losing her shoe in lap three and closing out the remaining 22 one shoe down. Her performance put her 46th out of 71 runners in a field that featured the 2019 NCAA DI Champion, Weini Kelati of New Mexico, as well as student-athletes from BYU, Oregon and Arkansas. Her time secured her spot at New England Regionals.
Manfra was not only the first Suffolk student-athlete to earn an indoor weekly accolade by the GNAC, but the first athlete in the conference's history.
Suffolk concludes its 2019 portion of its schedule this weekend at Northeastern's Howlin' Husky Invitational Saturday, Dec. 14.