According to the Bulldogs, the Raleigh Relays are known for their intense race atmosphere and tough competition. 

“It was exciting to be in a heat with the top competition in the country at Raleigh Relays,” Owen Karas ’26, a men’s distance runner, wrote to the News. 

After just missing the 5K record time in 2024, Leo Brewer ’25 returned to the relays this year ready to prove himself. 

 “I was agonizingly close to breaking the record [last year], missing it by just over 2 seconds,” wrote Brewer. 

The Relays’ “good competition and great conditions” pushed Brewer to the top this year.  “Once I knew it was still in my grasp with a kilometer to go, I closed as hard as I could and found the gears I needed, beating the previous record by 2 seconds,” Brewer noted.

The previous 5K school record was set by Robert Miranda ’22 in 2022. For current Bulldogs, however, Miranda left behind more than just a record. Brewer attributes much of his growth as an athlete to this former Eli. “He paved the way for me as a freshman and showed me what was possible,” wrote Brewer. 

Karas also broke his fourth school record of the 2024-25 year, setting the 1500-meter mark, and as with the indoor season, he’s focused on the Ivy League and NCAA championships at the end of spring. 

“A few of us hit times that could send us to NCAA Regionals,” wrote Karas, anticipating the team’s next goals.  

Brewer agreed with Karas, citing the team’s new leadership as a contributing factor in the Elis’ success. 

“Coach Basista has really got the group going in a great direction, and I’m excited to see where this takes us for the rest of the year and beyond,” wrote Brewer.

While a small group made their mark in Raleigh, the rest of the team took on the Black and Gold Invitational hosted by Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. 

Yale placed 12th of 16 teams, strategically giving up overall team points in order to provide the more inexperienced first and second-year athletes with valuable race experience. 

“The team is in a good place heading into the rest of the season. We have some standout freshmen who are really pulling their weight,” wrote Brewer, anticipating the strong results that are sure to follow these first few races of the season. 

With two weekends of racing behind them, the Bulldogs build their momentum and confidence. Victoria Guerrier ’26, who set the 800-meter school record at the UCF Invite during opening weekend, shared her goals to excel in the championships, mirroring the rest of the team. 

“I’m so excited to embrace that high bar and go for it,” Guerrier wrote to the News. 

The Bulldogs will split again this Saturday, heading to Princeton, New Jersey, for the Sam Howell Invitational and UConn for the Dog Fight Invite. 

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According to Head Coach of Men’s Cross Country Kyle Basista, 45 men and women across all different event groups were invited to a training camp in Orlando from March 16 to March 23. Training took place in the mornings and lasted three to four hours as the team took advantage of the warm weather to prepare for their outdoor season.

The competition subsequently took place on Friday and Saturday.

“Across the board, everyone performed really well. It was a great meet, and we’re really excited to see what we can do [for the season ahead],” said Max Bishop ’28, one of three first years on the men’s team to attend the pre-invitational camp. Bishop set a personal record of 1:50.46 in the 800m run. 

Junior Owen Karas ’26, who raced in the second 800m heat, clocked an astonishing 1:48.30, winning the event and setting the overall fastest time in the NCAA season thus far. Karas’ performance also made him the third all-time at Yale for the 800m.

“Last year, I did the 1500m on Friday and the 800m on Saturday,” Karas told the News. “This year, I did the exact same thing, so I have a perfect metric to compare. Both of those times being faster than what they were last year are really good signals to me.” 

Karas said he intends to continue running after college and hopes to secure a professional or semi-professional contract.

Senior Cristian Pereira ’25 also won his heat — the 100m dash — with an astounding personal record of 10.59, the fifth all-time at Yale. Orion Browne ’28 continued the trend with a triple jump best mark of his own at 14.45 meters, and junior Isiah Udofia ’26 jumped an Ivy League leading mark of 7.42m in the long jump event. Nolan Recker ’26 also landed second in his league with a hammer throw of 59.46m.

“We [had] a slew of notable performances from the weekend. The coaching staff [are] very pleased, given it was the first outdoor meet of the season,” Batista wrote to the News.

Similarly, amongst the women’s team, Victoria Guerrier ’27 broke a 14-year-old Yale record for the outdoor 800m run, clocking a time of 2:03.07. Fellow sophomore Lucija Grd ’27 contributed to this excellent showing with a second-place-winning time of 14.17 in her 100m hurdles heat, breaking an eight-year-old Yale school record for the event.

Running the 800m, Iris Bergman ’25, Linde Fonville ’26, Anna Chamberlin ’26 and Sylvie Sanok Dufallo ’28 set new personal records, with Bergman and Fonville becoming Yale Top 10 All-Timers. Juliette Kosmont ’27 and captain Dominique Romain ’25 also became Top 10 all-time runners in the 100m dash with their new records.

In the 4x100m relay, Romain, Grd, Kosmont and Molly Harding ’26 joined together to produce the second-best performance in Yale’s history.

“[We] want to keep cutting time down and set no limits for [our]selves,” said Matthew Schutzbank ’28, who attended the training camp and invitational, setting a personal record himself. 

“[Getting] faster is addicting, and we love to win. The team has a great environment, and we’re just going to keep improving,” Bishop said.

Batista echoed his runners’ sentiments as he set the tone for the coming season.

“Coming off a strong indoor season and an overall uplifting performance at Heps, we want to build off that momentum throughout the outdoor season,” Batista wrote to the News.

The team will appear at the Raleigh Relays in North Carolina this Thursday and Friday and at another Black and Gold invitational against Bryant University this coming weekend.

The Track and Field team will host three key meets on campus this semester, beginning with the “Transatlantic Series,” in which Harvard and Yale will compete against Cambridge and Oxford on April 12.

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“There were many talented athletes from various colleges, not just the Ivy League, which made the environment feel more competitive,” Juliette Kosmont ’27 wrote to the News.

Harvard’s unscored Crimson Elite meet on Friday allowed younger runners to gain more experience and show off their growth at the season’s midpoint. 

The women’s team broke two school records; Lucija Grd ’27 broke her 60 meter hurdle record in the finals with a time of 8.54, just a millisecond faster than her previous record. 

Kosmont also broke her own school record in the 60 meter race with a time of 7.49, improving by 0.03 seconds. 

“It was more exciting to break someone else’s record, but it is satisfying to improve against myself,” Kosmont wrote. 

The men’s team also performed well. Notably, Andrew Farr ’26 placed first in his heat of the 400 meter dash, and his time of 49.03 adds to his season-long progression.

The following day, the Bulldogs went across the Charles River to compete at Boston University’s Bruce Lehane Scarlet & White Invite.

The team continued the weekend’s trend, breaking two more school records.

Victoria Guerrier ’27 continued her brilliance on the track, breaking her own 500 meter school record set at the Yale, Dartmouth and Columbia meet and winning her event in 1:11.44. 

Owen Karas ’26, another consistently strong runner for the team, ran the mile in 3:58.37, breaking his third school record of the season and notably beating the sub-4 minute milestone.

Ultimately, Guerrier and Karas will surely bring strong competition to the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship, commonly referred to as “Heps,” in two weeks. 

Finally, Iris Bergman ’25 and Leo Brewer ’25 also put out strong performances for their last indoor season as Bulldogs. Their efforts in the 1k and 3k put them on Yale’s top-10 all-time list as second and fourth, respectively. 

Next weekend, the Bulldogs will compete at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 14 at BU and return to Coxe Cage on Feb. 15 for the Giegengack Invitational.

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The weekend began at the UConn Husky Challenge on Dec. 5. Yale sent their men’s and women’s throwing teams to compete against UConn, American Int’l, Garden State TC, Northeastern, UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell. 

“It was awesome to be able to compete in back-to-back meets for the opening weekend,” Nolan Recker ’26, a weight thrower, wrote to the News. “Competing is always a fun time.”

The men’s team was represented by Recker, Chu Anueyiagu ’27 and Jake Sun ’26, placing second, fourth and fifth, respectively. Recker set the school weight throw record last season of 66’ 10.75” and opened this season with a throw of 65’ 07.00”, just shy of his PR.

Recker recently joined the Yale football team as a multi-sport athlete as well.

“Now that track season has kicked off, I’m only doing track workouts and very focused on making sure my body is operating at its best with sleep and mobility work,” Recker wrote, highlighting the diversity of athletes represented on Yale’s track and field Team. 

The women’s team was represented by Ivy Pete ’26 and Emma Peretti ’27, placing sixth and seventh, respectively. Makayla Harris ’26 also competed, but her attempt was disqualified. 

Harris turned around her performance at Yale’s Season Opener at Coxe Cage the following day on Dec. 6 against Hartford, New Haven, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart and SCSU. Harris threw a weight of 56’ 09.50”, placing first, and her work was hard-earned. 

“Last semester, our training intensity really took off—it felt like the entire team embraced a new level of commitment and energy,” Jamaal Darlington ’27, a high jump athlete and Harris’ teammate, wrote to the News. “It’s been all about refining the progress we made in the fall and using that as a springboard for a strong indoor season.”

Darlington opened the day with a PR of 1.93m in the high jump, placing first. His win was followed by 12 more event wins from the men’s team, and 10 event wins from the women’s team. Alongside the Bulldogs’ victories, many athletes scored personal records, which sets them up nicely for the upcoming season. 

These successes culminate in the Bulldogs’ comradery, support and hard work. 

“For me, the real victory is that I’m healthy and able to compete, doing what I love most,” Darlington wrote.

Owen Karas ’26 took advantage of the fitness and support he gained during the cross country season to run a school 5k record at BU’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, a competitive meet that draws athletes nationwide. 

His time of 13:53.27 was nearly six seconds faster than the previous record set by Kevin Dooney ’16 in 2014. 

“It is common practice to get an early track season mark in the 5k based on your aerobic base from cross country,” Karas wrote to the News. 

Karas will now turn his focus to middle distance and likely dominate the mile and 1500-meter fields. He joins the rest of his team with high hopes and strong efforts for the new season. 

“We’re laser-focused on making a real impact in the Ivy League,” Jamaal wrote. “There’s no telling how far we can go when everyone’s firing on all cylinders.”

The Bulldogs are set to compete in Hanover at Dartmouth’s Leverone Field House on Jan. 18 for the annual Yale-Dartmouth-Columbia meet. 

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“When I came to Yale, I wasn’t sure if track was my thing,” Gloria told the News while Victoria nodded in agreement. “Track became something I loved.” 

Track and field was just an afterthought when the twins joined their high school’s team in ninth grade — their older sister encouraged them to give it a shot. The two figured that it would also be beneficial off-season training for their other “more important” sports: basketball, volleyball and lacrosse.

Due to the pandemic, their first season was cut short, and when Victoria and Gloria returned, the women’s team shrank to just the two of them. 

They trained primarily with the men’s team, but the inexperienced high school coaching staff and lack of team camaraderie made it difficult for twins to reach their potential and perform consistently.

Still, their talents were noticeable. Gloria won the 2022 New York State Championship in the 400-meter hurdles after only training with hurdles since the start of that season. Victoria secured impressive personal records in the 800-meter dash. 

“They were offering pizza for anyone that ran under 2:20 [in the 800-meter dash],” Victoria said. “I went from running 2:30 to 2:16 that day and broke the meet record.”

Jude Massillon, managing director of the Sports Performance Group who trained 214 all-American athletes, scouted the Guerrier twins during their junior year. 

He recruited them to represent Haiti in the 2023 CARIFTA Games, an annual track and field competition for junior athletes from Caribbean countries.

“Their senior year [achievements] gave people an opportunity to see they were successful academically and athletically,” Massillon told the News. “Before that, they weren’t really seen.”

The twins then spent the spring and summer of 2023 training to compete at a professional level while simultaneously juggling homework and their high school training. 

Massillon reiterated their determinism. 

“They are as fearless on the track as they are in the classroom,” he said.

Their work paid off. Victoria became Haiti’s first female to win a global medal in the CARIFTA Games. 

The thrill of competition, both against each other and other runners kept Victoria and Gloria motivated, yet they struggled with self-doubt, they said. 

“In my mind, I don’t know how to hurdle, so I imagine that I’m [Sydney McLaughlin] on the start line,” Gloria said. “My motto is fake it till you make it.’”

Running in college had not been on the twins’ agenda before senior year. Neither Victoria nor Gloria expected any responses when they began reaching out to coaches, but they were offered official visits from a multitude of academically rigorous Division III schools, as well as Harvard and Yale.

Ultimately, the twins chose Yale, as they prioritized academics over athletics, they said. 

“I wanted to give myself the chance to get into a good college so that I could change the direction of my life,” Gloria said.

Yale’s athletics offered Victoria and Gloria a new approach to specified training and a positive team atmosphere. This allowed them to set personal and school records in just their first year — a rare occurrence for incoming D1 athletes.

During last year’s Ivy Championships, Gloria had to compete with a torn LCL but still was able to place sixth. “I was fighting through the pain,” she said.

After the collegiate season and a summer of training with the French U20 team, the twins returned to the 2024 U20 championships at the CARIFTA Games this past summer. Victoria placed second in the 800-meter dash and Gloria, while recovering from her injury, placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles.

“They are one of a kind in their consistent approach to greatness because everything they do is geared toward excellence,” Massillon said. “I expect nothing short of [an] L.A. 2028 visit from them.”

Their success extends beyond their own satisfaction. Gloria told the News that “the Haitian [reputation] right now is not good,” and by showing excellence through sport she hopes to uplift the country. 

Their goals for the upcoming season focus on winning the Ivy League Championships and continuing to improve Haiti’s reputation internationally.

Victoria and Gloria will begin the 2024-2025 season at the indoor track and field season opener in early December 2024.

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On Thursday, the Bulldogs sent one athlete to compete in Walnut, California, at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays, followed by a larger group of athletes that headed to the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday, April 19. The remainder of the athletes stayed home to host the Mark Young Invitational at Coxe Cage in New Haven on Saturday, April 20.

“Some great performances across the board in every event group indicate that we are in a good place as we head into the championship season,” head coach David Shoehalter wrote to the News.

On Thursday, Sean Kay ’24 was the lone representative of the Bulldogs in southern California, earning 8th place in the 10k with a time of 30:08.01. The competition was held at Mt. San Antonio College.

On Friday, the women’s team had an impressive day at the Wake Forest Invitational. Juliette Kosmont ’27 led the Bulldogs with a new school record in the 100m, taking second place with a time of 11.80 seconds. Meanwhile, Gloria Guerrier ’27 took third in the 400m hurdles with a PR of 59.64 seconds, Linde Fonville ’26 took second overall in the 1500m with a PR of 4:24.05, Dominique Romain ’25 took fourth in the long jump with a 5.93m leap to tie her previous PR and Maria Leskovec ’24 took eighth in the hammer with a 54.94m throw. 

In the relays, the 4x100m team consisted of Sophie Spokes ’27, Makayla White ’26, Romain and Kosmont, who took first with a time of 46.37 seconds. The 4x400m team consisted of Guerrier, Bridget Vitu ’25, Ella Mainwaring Foster ’24 and Peyton Parker ’25 who also took first with a time of 3:47.93.

Meanwhile, the men’s team at Wake Forest was led by Brian Di Bassinga ’26 and Isiah Udofia ’26, taking wins in the triple jump and long jump with 14.41m and 7.51m finishes, respectively. Chris Ward ’24 took third in the shot put with a throw of 17.60m, putting him second on Yale’s all-time list. On the track, Brian Gamble ’27 set a PR in the 1500m with a time of 3:46.25 and Owen Karas ’26 won his heat in the invitational section of the 1500m with a time of 3:40.80. Kit Colson ’25 set a PR in the 100m dash with a time of 10.59 seconds and Thomas Cirrito ’24 set a PR in the 800m with a time of 1:48.84, his first finish under the 1:49 mark.

“We had many great performances at Wake Forest this weekend,” men’s captain Matt Appel ’24 wrote to the News. “Two in particular I would like to name were from first year Julliete Kosmont who broke the 100m dash school record and Chris Ward who moved to #2 all time in the outdoor shot put while securing a regional mark in likely both the shot put and discus. Fresh off the plane, I was able to make it to the Mark Young Invitational to witness even more PR’s. I am super happy with the effort of the team as a whole this week, and it showed off on the track.”

Finally, the Bulldogs rounded off competition on Saturday at the Mark Young Invitational hosted in New Haven at Coxe Cage. The Bulldogs hosted Fordham, Brown, Stony Brook, Iona and St. Peter’s, with the women’s team taking second and the men’s team taking third.

On the women’s side of competition, Sophia Karperos ’24 started things off for the Bulldogs with a victory in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing in 11:24.28. Also in the distance events, Priya Gangadharan ’27 took sixth with a PR of 4:46.36 in the 1500m, and Miranda Lorsbach ’26 and Kathryn Rodrigues ’24 took first and second in the 5000m with finishes of 17:35.85 and 17:39.14, respectively. In the mid-distance events, Kalista Villatoro ’27 took first in the 800m with a 2:13.08 finish. Finally, in the jumps, Alexandra Bonn ’27 took first in the triple jump with an 11.88m PR, while Sydney Kunkler ’24 took first in the long jump with a 5.47m leap.

On the men’s side of events, Jack Sendek ’25 led the Bulldogs with a 3:51.86 finish for first place in the 1500m, while Ronan Luff ’27 finished right behind him with a 3:52.54 PR. In the sprints, Malcolm Grant ’27 took first in the 200m with a 22.42 second PR, while Andrew Fu ’27 took second in the 100m with a time of 11.17 seconds. In the field, Alex Sundberg ’24 took first in the hammer throw with a 45.71m toss, and Elliot Wessel ’26 took first in the pole vault with a 4.30m clearance.

“We had quite a few impressive performances on the women’s side this past weekend,” assistant coach Connor Shannahan wrote to the News. “Notably, first year Juliette Kosmont broke the school record in the 100m running a time of 11.80 seconds. We also saw multiple other athletes put forth personal best performances in their respective events. The team is looking forward to the next few weeks of training as we get closer to postseason competition, beginning with the Ivy League Championships on May 4th.”

The Bulldogs have one more weekend of competition left before their postseason kicks off with the Ivy League Outdoor Track and Field Championships which will take place on May 4 in Princeton, New Jersey. They will compete this weekend at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on April 25 through 27 before coming back to New Haven on April 28 to host the Yale Springtime Invitational.

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With the Ivy League Outdoor Track & Field Championships being held at Princeton at the beginning of May, many of Yale’s throwers, jumpers, and distance runners had the opportunity to try out Princeton’s facilities before the more important meet comes in just three more weekends. Between Princeton, NJ and Storrs, CT, both teams faced inclement conditions.

“We performed well in challenging conditions,” Head Coach David Shoehalter wrote to the News. “I am looking forward to the weeks to come.”

At Princeton, the women’s team saw the strongest performances in the field events. Maria Leskovec ’24 set a PR in the hammer throw with a distance of 52.81m, earning her sixth place. Meanwhile, also at Princeton, Dominique Romain ’25 finished sixth for the Bulldogs in the long jump, covering 5.68m with a single leap.

At UConn, the women’s team’s performance was marked by more strong performances in the field events. Sydney Kunkler ’24 took the top spot for Yale in the long jump, covering 5.44m in one stride, just shy of her teammate Romain’s performance in New Jersey. Meanwhile, pole vaulter Eileen Yang ’24 cleared 3.63m, her seventh meet in a row clearing 3.60m.

“The majority of the team competed at UConn, while a few of our field event athletes traveled down to New Jersey this weekend for the Larry Ellis invite,” assistant coach Connor Shannahan wrote to the News. “Between both meets we saw the team compete well in less than ideal conditions. We are excited to build off those performances this week, as we have athletes competing down in North Carolina for the Wake Forest Invitational and at home for the Mark Young Invitational.”

On the men’s side of competition, the throwers led the Bulldogs with strong performances at Princeton. Chris Ward ’24 took fourth in the shot put with a 17.21m throw, while team captain Matt Appel ’24 took fourth place in the discus with a 56.55m toss.

At UConn, the Bulldogs managed to set several PRs on the track. Tanish Chettiar ’26 kicked things off for Yale with a 3:51.21 PR in the 1500m, finishing just ahead of teammate Ronan Luff ’27 who set himself a PR with a time of 3:54.94. Meanwhile, Simon Jupp ’25 set a PR in the 200m with a time of 22.31 seconds.

“Having the team split is tough because we aren’t able to support each other as we want to,” Appel wrote to the News, “but it was a great opportunity for the throwers, some of the jumpers, and some of the distance runners to get a feel for what competing at Princeton is like before HEPs.”

Appel added that while the bad weather was “unfortunate” for a lot of the sprinters, they needed to be prepared to compete in such conditions “if those are the cards that we are dealt.” 

“As the season starts to wind down, we need to make sure that we double down our efforts at practice and in the classroom to put us in the best situation come May 4th,” Appel wrote. 

The Bulldogs will compete next at the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday, April 19, and on Saturday, April 20 they will host the Mark Young Invitational in New Haven at Coxe Cage. 

The Bulldogs have two more weekends of competition left before their postseason kicks off with the Ivy League Outdoor Track and Field Championships which will take place on May 4 in Princeton.

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Head coach David Shoehalter, who has been with the Bulldogs since 1994, said this was the first time in recent memory that both the men’s and women’s squad have taken home head-to-head victories against their arch-rivals from Cambridge.

“Always good to beat our rivals, and it’s the first time both our men and women have won the meet in recent memory,” Shoehalter wrote to the News. “We still have a long way to go in the season but the results are improving and I am looking forward to what the second half of outdoor brings.”

On the men’s side of events, Nolan Recker ’26 and Chris Ward ’24 led the throws group. The former took first in the hammer throw with a PR of 58.24m and the latter took first in both the discus with a distance of 51.18m and shot put with a throw of 16.44m. Brian Di Bassinga ’26 led the rest of the field athletes with consecutive leaps totaling 14.66m in the triple jump, earning him first place.

On the track, Tanish Chettiar ’26 took first place in the 1500m with a time of 3:56.79, and Aaron Miller ’25 took first in the 400m with a time of 50.17 seconds. In the 200m, Jacob Kao ’25 blitzed his way to first place with a time of 21.64 seconds.

“I think we did what we needed to do,” men’s team captain Matt Appel ’24 wrote to the News. “They’re a super talented team with loads of star power, but we have really great depth on our squad and we showed it off this weekend. It’s a long season, and there’s still a lot of work to be done leading up to HEPs, but it always feels nice to get a win versus that team up North.”

On the women’s side of competition, the Bulldogs started off strong in the relays, with both the 4×100 and 4×400 teams taking first place with times of 48.29 seconds and 3:59.96, respectively. The 4×100 consisted of Sophie Spokes ’27, Makayla White ’26, Dominique Romain ’25 and Juliette Kosmont ’27 and the 4×400 consisted of Gloria Guerrier ’27, Bridget Vitu ’25, Peyton Parker ’25 and Molly Harding ’26. 

Meanwhile, in the individual events, Gloria Guerrier also took home first place in the 400m hurdles with a PR of 1:04.38, and fellow first year Kalista Villatoro ’27 earned gold in the 800m with a time of 2:15.93. Rounding out the track victories was Sophia Karperos ’25, who earned the top spot in the steeplechase with a time of 11:35.19. 

In the field events, Romain earned herself another gold medal in the long jump with a 5.60m leap, and Abrianna Barrett ’24 took first in the high jump with a 1.68m clearance.

“We had quite a few good performances on the women’s side this past weekend,” assistant coach Connor Shannahan wrote to the News. “As is expected from early April outdoor meets, the weather was less than ideal, however it is always exciting to get a win over our rivals. We are looking to keep the momentum going this weekend as the team travels to invites at both Princeton and UConn.”

The Bulldogs will compete next at two meets this upcoming weekend, Princeton’s Larry Ellis Invitational and UConn’s Northeast Challenge. Both will take place on Friday and Saturday, April 12-13.

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In their second weekend of the outdoor season, Yale’s men’s and women’s track and field teams sent their distance runners to compete in relays in Raleigh at NC State’s Raleigh Relays, while the rest of the two teams’ athletes stayed in Connecticut to compete at UConn in Hartford.

“Our group in Raleigh had some great early season performances, while those at UConn had the chance to reacclimate to northeast conditions,” said head coach David Shoehalter. “We are all looking forward to competing at home against Harvard this weekend.”

In the Raleigh Relays, there were no team scores, but several Bulldogs on both the men’s and women’s teams had strong performances. In the women’s competition, two Yalies broke the 17-minute threshold in the 5k, with Charlotte Whitehurst ’26 running a PR of 16:56.07, her first time under the 17:00 threshold, and Kyra Pretre ’24 running a 16:55.67. On the men’s side of competition, three Yalies PR’ed across three different events — Owen Karas ’26 with a 3:52.15 finish in the 1500m, Leo Brewer ’25 with a 13:55.22 in the 5k and Sean Kay ’24 with a 29:19.50 finish in the 10k.

Meanwhile, in the UConn Dog Fight Invite, the men’s team took fifth out of 10, and the women’s team took sixth out of a field of 11. 

The men’s team in Hartford had strong performances in a variety of events. As usual, Matt Appel ’24 shined among his throws group with a 52.49m hurl in the discus, and Chris Ward ’24 brought home a gold medal in the shot put with a 17.53m PR. Jake Sun ’26 earned the throws group a bronze medal in the hammer throw with a 57.03m toss, and Brian Di Bassinga also took home bronze in another field event, the triple jump, with three leaps that totaled 14.52m. 

In the sprints, Mason Evans ’26 PR’ed in the 100m dash with a time of 10.87 seconds, putting him just behind Yale’s top finisher in the event James Grindle ’25, who covered that same distance in 10.84 seconds. In the 200m dash, Isiah Udofia ’26, Aaron Miller ’25 and Cristian Pereira ’25 all broke the 22-second mark with times of 21.63, 21.88, and 21.98, with Udofia setting a personal best. Pereira, Jacob Kao ’25, Udofia and Grindle also secured second place in the 4x100m with a 42.99-second effort. 

“We had some really strong performances both at NC State and UConn,” men’s captain Appel wrote to the News. “The distance runners in Raleigh had really strong showings and we had promising performances in Storrs as well. As a whole, we feel like we are making good progress toward a spot that we will want to be at by the end of the year.”

The women’s team also had strong performances in throws, jumps, and sprints in Hartford. Maria Leskovec ’24 set a PR in the hammer with a 52.46m throw, and Charlie Williams ’26 set another PR in the event with a 41.80m throw. Emma Perretti ’27 also set two PR’s on the day, with a 12.94m toss in the shot put and a 37.51m throw in the discus. 

In the high jump, Abrianna Barrett ’24 took fourth with a 1.65m vertical leap. Meanwhile, on the track, Lola Isom ’27 finished sixth in the 400m hurdles with a 1:05.06 PR, Sophie Spokes broke the 25-second mark in the 200m with a 7th place 24.99m finish, and Ella Mainwaring Foster ’24 took home third place in the 400m with a time of 57.36 seconds.

The Bulldogs will compete next at home against Ivy League rival Harvard on Saturday, April 6 in Coxe Cage. 

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Although there were no team scores for the weekend, the Yalies got a taste of top-level competition, competing against teams from the Big 10 and ACC, including Clemson, Penn State, Villanova and West Point. Several Bulldogs earned podium honors following the two-week break from classes which gave them even more time to focus on training.

“We were able to take full advantage of great weather and had a great week of training,” head coach David Shoehalter wrote to the News. “Lots of adjustments when you move outdoors especially in the field events. The wind can be a major factor and adjustments need to be made on the fly. We use these early meets to gauge those adjustments”.

On the men’s side, captain Matt Appel ’24 led the way in the field events while a full squad of distance runners dominated on the track. Appel took first overall in the discus with a hurl of 56.32m, blowing away the second-place thrower from West Point by over two meters. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs notched an incredible 1-5 punch in the 1500m run, with Owen Karas ’26, Winslow Atkeson ’25, Leo Brewer ’25, Brian Gamble ’27 and Braden King ’26 all finishing within three seconds of each other to earn first through fifth place. In the mid-distance events, Thomas Cirrito ’24 also impressed with a 1:49.22 PR in the 800m, earning him 5th place.

Appel, a senior who will be taking advantage of his final year of eligibility next year to compete for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the transition to the outdoor season provides the team with a special opportunity every year to bond over a spring break trip.

“We always take the opportunity to make the spring break training trip a bonding experience for the team,” Appel wrote to the News. “After bright and early practice, we were all getting meals together, going bowling and some of us even went to an Orlando Magic game! It’s a unique opportunity to be around only people on the team for a whole week without the pressure of school that doesn’t happen at any other point in the year and I think we made the most of it.”

The women’s team was led by Victoria Guerrier ’27 in the 800m, who took second place with a 2:06 PR. Several other athletes finished in the top 10 for the women’s team, including Linde Fonville ’26 setting a PR of 4:27.07 in the 1500m dash for a 4th place finish, Maria Leskovec ’24 setting a PR of 51.55m in the hammer throw for an 8th place finish and captain Bella Bergloff ’24 with a 44.14m throw in the discus for a 10th place finish.

While women’s captain Bergloff said she appreciated the opportunity to head back outdoors, she noted that the long week of training and bonding makes it hard to set expectations for the rest of the outdoor season.

“It was great to open up this past weekend at UCF, and be outside in good weather again,” Bergloff wrote to the News. “It can be hard to use this meet as a gauge for the rest of the season, as it was at the end of a tiring week in a new environment. But we got some great baseline marks, and I know everyone is super stoked to be competing outside again, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we’ll do over the next month or so.”

The team will compete next at the Raleigh Relays at North Carolina State University on Thursday, March 28, their outdoor season opener in 2023. They will also compete at the UConn Dog Fight Invite on Saturday, March 30.

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