The Brandeis Track and Field team have been busy this April as they have competed in five meets this month alone. On the 1st they competed in the Tufts Snowflake Classic, on the 6th in the Regis College Classic, on the 8th in the Amherst Spring Fling, on the 14th in the Friar Invitational and most recently on the 15th in the Carla Coffey Invitational at Smith College. Each meet was an opportunity for new highs for the Judges as they competed in the run up to the University Athletic Association Championships (UAA) this weekend on the 22nd.

Here is a brief recap on the season the men’s and women’s teams have had thus far. In order of events from least to most recent, the Judges on the men’s side clamed sixth and the women’s side were able to clinch fifth place at the Tufts Snowflake Classic. 

Danny Krigman ’25 finished second in the preliminary 100-meter dash with a qualifying time of 11.59 seconds. He then went on to not only come in first in the 100-meter dash final race but also beat his qualifying time by 20 seconds for a final time of 11.39 seconds. Krigman also took home a third-place finish of 23.47 seconds in the 200-meter dash.

Matthew Yue ’26 and Leo Schiappa ’26 also competed in the 100-meter dash. Yue was seventh in the preliminary round with a time of 11.88 seconds, setting a new personal record, and then went on to finish seventh overall in the finals with a time of 11.93 seconds. Schiappa finished 18th with a time of 12.15 seconds, also a new personal record for him. TJ Carleo ’26 continued his incredible season in the 1500-meter run, finishing first in 4:06.81, only 6.57 seconds behind his personal record which he set a week ago. Then, in the 4×400-meter relay, Ori Slotky ’24, TJ Showstead ’26, Young Wang ’25 and Henry Nguyen ’25 finished third with a time of 3:35.62.

On the women’s side: Devin Hiltunen ’23 led the team with her performances. Finishing seventh in the 100-meter preliminary dash with a time of 13.18, she qualified for the finals and improved her time. Coming in with a time of 13.01 seconds, she managed to go from seventh in qualifying to finishing fifth in the finals. In the 200-meter dash and with a time of 27.06 seconds Hiltunen came in seventh in a race with 60 women total.

Yahni Lapa ’23 and Hannah Bohbot-Dridi ’24 pushed the Judges through the 400-meter hurdles with their amazing results. Lapa finished fourth with a time of 1:06.06 and Bohbot-Dridi, setting a new personal record, was right behind as she finished 6th with a time of 1:09.43. The Judges also performed well in the 4×400-meter relay with their team of Liz Korn ’24, Lapa, Hiltunen and Bohbot-Dridi. Together they finished fourth clocking in at 4:09.15.

Not even a week later, the Judges were back at it at the Regis College Classic. There the men’s side finished third overall, but the women blew every other team out of the water by coming in first with a commanding lead; being 74 points ahead of the second place team. The women’s side won nine events that day; five being individual races, three being field events and one relay race.

Smiley Huynh ’25 led the women’s side as she not only scored but won both in pole vault and long jump. She cleared 3.05m in pole vault and jumped 5.23m in the long jump. Shaniece Nugent ’26 won the team’s third field event in the triple jump with a distance of 10.63m. In the 4×100-meter relay, the Judges won with Hiltunen starting, Huynh and Nugent as the middle two legs and Alya Campbell ’24 as the anchor. They won with a time of 50.48 seconds, five seconds ahead of second place.

In the 100-meter sprint, Hiltunen came in first with a time of 12.98 seconds, just ahead of Ianna Gilbert ’24 with a time of 13.60 seconds (a personal record for her). Campbell, scoring a new personal best of 26.46 seconds, won the 200-meter sprint ahead of Hiltunen who came in 26.60 seconds and Nugent with 27.86 seconds.

The Judges locked out the top three spots in the 400-meter, with Korn coming in first with a time of 59.26 seconds. Victoria Morrongiello ’23, just behind Korn, came in second with a new personal record of 1:01.59. Olivia Zarzycki ’24 locked up third place with a time of 1:02.71. In the 400-meters hurdles Lapa took first with a time of 1:06.63 which was closely followed by Bohbot-Dridi who came in second with a time of 1:07.00 (a personal record for her). Kayla DiBenedetto ’25 in the 800-meters not only set herself a new personal record time of 2:23.02 but also won the event. She was just in front of Bridget Pickard ’23 who ran 2:26.88 to come in second.

On the men’s side, they were able to win four events landing them in third place at the Regis College Classic. Taking both hurdles events, Dion Morris-Evans ’23 won the 110-meter race in 15.59 seconds and Samuel Kim ’24 won the 400-meter race in 1:00.32. That win was Kim’s very first collegiate competitive 400 hurdles race, a truly unique and astonishing accomplishment for the junior! Yue won the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.52 seconds, a personal record for the firstyear by 0.15 seconds. Yue then won again as a member of the 4×100-meter relay squad. Accompanied by Jordan Colon ’25, Krigman and Schiappa, the team came in first with a time of 44.28 seconds.

Two days later the Judges were back on the track at Amherst College for the Amherst Spring Fling. Marked with some impressive performances by the Judges, Carleo ran the 800-meter and scored a new personal best of 1:52.64 by a little more than a second. He won the race with a 1.5 second gap to second place and that win has ranked him at 16th in Division III this season. Carleo also was an integral member of the 4×400-meter relay team that finished in sixth place. Carleo, Samuel Kim ’24, Morris-Evans and Ori Slotky ’24 finished with a time of 3:28.39.

In the 3000-meter steeplechase the Judges landed in second and third place with Lucas Dia ’25 in second with a time of 10:15.18 and Dashiell Janicki ’25 in third with a time of 10:15.97, a personal record for Janicki. Slotky and Kim also scored points in the 400-meter hurdles, with Slotky coming in eighth with a time of 59.41 seconds and Kim in ninth with a time of 59.99, his first time running sub one minute in the event. Morris-Evans also had wonderful performances in field events, where he finished fifth in both the high jump (1.80 meters, 5-10 ¾) and the long jump (6.49m, 21- 3 ½).

Artemis Reynolds ’23 came in fourth place in the discus throw with a total distance of 38.01 meters. They also managed a ninth place finish in the hammer throw at 39.99 meters.

Cam Peirce ’25, another thrower, came in sixth in the shot put with a distance of 12.61 meters and 10th in the discus with a distance of 32.42 meters. Jonathan Hau ’23 finished sixth in the javelin throwing a distance of 40.60 meters and just two places behind was Showstead with a distance of 31.80 meters.

On the women’s side, Campbell, in the 100-meter hurdles, finished fourth with a time of 15.25 seconds and Lapa, in the 400-meter hurdles, also finished fourth with a time of 1:07.06. Bohbot-Dridi was right behind Lapa in fifth with a time of 1:08.83.

Then in the 5000-meter run, the Judges were able to place in seventh, eighth and ninth place with Zada Forde ’25 coming in 7th with a time of 19:00.05, Katriona Briggs ’26 coming in eighth with a time of 19:39.92 and Calli Morvay ’26 finishing in ninth with a time of 20:43.73. Both Briggs and Morvay achieved new personal records in that race.

Huynh placed sixth in the long jump with a distance of 5.02m and seventh in the pole vault with a height of 3.15m. Kirsten Man ’24 finished sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 10.52m. And in seventh in the high jump was Olivia Zarzycki ’24 with a height of 1.43m. Emma Liu ’26 managed a seventh place finish in the hammer with a personal record setting throw of 38.49 meters. Nugent made it into the top 10 with a ninth place finish in the long jump with a distance of 4.87m.

The 4×100-meter relay composed of Hiltunen, Nugent, Huynh and Campbell finished fourth with a time of 49.79 seconds. Also in fourth place was the Judges’ 4×400-meter relay with a time of 4:07.73 made up of Korn, Lapa, Morrongiello and Bohbot-Dridi.

Then, once class was back in session after the Passover break at Brandeis, the Judges were back on the road in Providence Rhode Island for the Friar Invitational. While this was a non-scoring event, three personal record-setting moments occurred for the Judges. Carleo continued his amazing season by reaching a new personal record in the mile with a time of 4:14.46. Willem Goff ’24 set himself a new personal record with a time of 4:25.52 in the mile as well. And DiBenedetto, in the mile again, set a personal record with a time of 5:10.21.

On the very next day the track and field team arrived at Smith College for the Carla Coffey Invitational where both sides finished in seventh place. Showstead had a day to remember as he not only finished 8th in the decathlon with a score of 4981, but he also set four new personal records for himself! In the 400-meter run he finished seventh with a time of 54.91. In discus he came in sixth with a distance of 29.95m. In pole vault, with a height of 3.10m he came in eigthth and in the 1500-meter run he came in ninth with a time of 5:18.05. All four being new personal records for him, and in two other events nearly setting new personal records as well.

Adam Riedan ’26 came in second in the javelin throw with a distance of 49.50m. This was not only his second ever event but also a new personal record from his first event which he beat by almost 10 meters. Caleb Sharif ’26 set two new personal records at this meet: in shot put he finished 18th but threw a distance of 11.04m, then placing 17th in discus with a distance of 31.62m.

On the women’s side there were many impressive results from the 400-meter run. Korn came in fifth with a time of 59.39 (nearly at her personal record for the event) and Bohbot-Dridi came in ninth with a time of 59.96 (a new college personal record for her). And although finishing in 17th, Zarzycki was just behind her teammates with a time of 1:02.68. And with a sixth place finish, the 4×100 relay team of Hiltunen, Nugent, Huynh and Campbell crossed the line with a time of 49.58.

The Judges look towards the end of the season as they fly out on Friday morning to compete at the UAA Championships at the University of Chicago.

Editor’s Note: Editor-in-Chief Victoria Morrongiello, Deputy Sports Editor Calli Morvay and Layout Editor Erik Lopez did not contribute to the writing or editing of this article.