The Brandeis University track teams competed at Tufts University in the 2022 Branwen Smith-King Invitational and Boston University to compete in the Terrier Classic on Sunday, Jan. 30. The Brandeis women’s track and field squad had a seventh-place finish overall, with a trio of second-place finishes on the day; the men, on the other hand, set some personal records at both BU and Tufts.
Sophomore runner Alya Campbell ’24 placed second in the 60-meter hurdles. She finished her heat in 9.89 seconds; in the finals, she finished in 9.97 seconds.
Victoria Morrongiello ’23 placed second in the 600-meter run in 1:42.26; she finished four seconds behind first place, and four seconds ahead of third.
Devin Hiltunen ’23 competed in her second meet of the season and placed fourth overall in the 60-meter dash. She ran 8.16 in the prelims and 8.13 in the finals; Hiltunen was only 0.01 seconds shy of her lifetime best in that event.
Kayla DiBenedetto ’25 finished 0.59 seconds ahead of the sixth-place finisher, landing in fifth in the 800-meter run; DiBenedetto completed her race in 2:31.22. Hannah Bohbot-Dridi ’25 placed seventh in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:07.81.
In addition to Campbell and Morrongiello’s impressive second-place finishes, the Judges 4×200-meter relay squad placed second, as well. Anna Touitou ’22, Campbell, Bohbot-Dridi and Hiltunen ran a time of 1:50.08.
The Brandeis women’s track and field team added a half point to their overall score in field events as Smiley Huynh ’24 tied for eighth place in the pole vault competition with a height of 2.95 meters. Overall, the women’s squad scored 35.5 points at the 2022 Tufts Branwen Smith-King Invitational.
At the Boston University Terrier Classic, Reese Farquhar ’22 recorded a personal record with 7.18 seconds in the 60-meter dash; nearly shaving a 10th of a second off of his previous record. Farquhar finished second overall in the Non-Invitational 60-meter, as his time was consistent in both the prelims and the finals. Jamie O’Neil ’22 also recorded a new personal record in the 400-meter dash, shaving 0.09 off his previous personal best, recording a time of 51.57 seconds; O’Neil finished 47th overall and fourth among D3 runners. Both O’Neil and Farquhar also set personal best times in the 200-meter dash. Farquhar placed sixth among D3 runners with a personal record of 22.69 seconds, and 44th overall, while O’Neil placed 70th overall with a time 0.42 seconds better than his previous career best. Samuel Kim ’24 was additionally successful at BU, running the 800-meter dash in 2:00.85 seconds, placing 90th overall and 14th among D3 runners.
The other half of the men’s track and field team found success at Tufts University, finishing in eighth place among 10 scoring teams. The 200-meter dash was the most prolific scoring event for the Judges, as three runners earned points. Parker Jones ’24 placed fourth in 24.05 seconds, a collegiate best for him, while Dean Carey ’25 placed sixth in 24.03 seconds; Carey was also successful in the 60-meter dash, running a personal best in the prelims and finals. Young Wang ’24 finished the 400-meter dash in 55.76 seconds, landing him in seventh place in the event.
In field events, the Judges dominated with three scorers in the triple jump. Lin Lin Hutchinson ’25 set one of two career-bests on the day, leaping 11.71 meters, placing him sixth overall; in the long jump event, Hutchinson placed seventh with 5.54 meters. In the triple jump, Jones took seventh place, jumping 11.52 meters, and Ori Slotky ’24 placed in the triple jump with 11.47 meters under his belt. Not to be outdone was Thomas Vandalovsky ’23 who threw a great distance of 13.53 meters in the 35-pound weight throw.
Placing fourth in the 4×400-meter relay was a team composed of Campbell, Wang, Simon Goode ’25 and Carl Nie ’25; they finished with a time of 3:40.91.
Both the men’s and women’s Brandeis track and field teams return to action on Saturday, Feb. 5 at the Tufts Cupid Invitational.
Editor’s note: Victoria Morrongiello is the news editor at The Hoot and did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.
