On Jan. 13, the Brandeis Judges’ men’s and women’s track and field teams hosted their first meet of the 2024 season, the Reggie Poyau ’04 Memorial Invitational, here at Brandeis. The event was a success for the Judges, who scored nine total wins. In the meet, the women’s team took first place with 129.5 points, while the men’s team reached third place with 80 points.
In the women’s competition, two Judges were double winners in the field events. Smiley Huynh ’24 won the pole vault event with a height of 3.55 meters (11’ 7-3/4”) as well as the long jump event with a distance of 5.05 meters (16’ 1-3/4”). Kirsten Man ’25, meanwhile, won the triple jump event with a distance of 10.99 meters (36’ 0-3/4”) and the high jump with a height of 1.56 meters (5’ 1-1/2”)—the only competitor to clear five feet in the women’s high jump. Sophie Segal ’27 reached a close second place behind Man in the triple jump, reaching a distance of 10.21 meters (33’ 6”). Brandeis had three scorers in the 600-meter run event: Olivia Zarzycki ’24 took first place with a time of 1:42.89, a 0.16-second win, with Hannah Bohbot-Dridi ’25 talking third with a time of 1:43.11 and Natalie Liapis ’27 coming in fifth with a time of 1:49.92.
The Judges’ women’s team also won the 4×400-meter relay event, with the team of Zarzycki, Bohbot-Dridi, Liapis and Ifigenia Oxyzoulou ’26 taking the race with a time of 4:21.94. Brandeis occupied five of the top seven places in the women’s 3,000-meter run: Anna Batelli was second with a time of 11:02.52, Sadie Harrow ’27 was third with a time of 11:05.05, Ella Warkentine was fourth with a time of 11:08.00, Zada Forde ’25 was sixth with a time of 11:29.83 and Katriona Briggs ’26 rounded out the top seven with a time of 11:36.86. Finally, Alya Campbell ’24 was another double scorer for the women’s team, this time on the track side, taking third place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.45 seconds and fifth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.55 seconds.
For the men’s team, meanwhile, Brandeis saw three individual victories throughout the competition’s events. First, in the 1,000-meter run event, TJ Carleo ’26 took first place with a time of 2:34.03, edging the competition by nearly one and a half seconds. In the 600-meter run, Samuel Kim ’24 won by a wide margin, taking a time of 1:24.68, over four seconds ahead of the second-place scorer. The Judges scored again in the 600-meter run, with Ori Slotky ’24 taking third with a time of 1:29.05—only 0.01 seconds away from second place. Lastly, the 3,000-meter run saw Willem Goff ’24 winning with a time of 9:15.97. Goff was among five Brandeis scorers in the 3,000-meter run, with Lucas Dia ’25 coming in second with a time of 9:21.51. Just behind Dia in third was Henry Nguyen with a time of 9:21.74. Dylan Zhao ’26 scored sixth place in the event with a time of 9:50.67, with Ethan Meilander ’25 behind in seventh with a time of 9:56.62.
In the men’s mile run event, Hugh Licklider ’27, in his first college race, took second place with a time of 4:28.85. In the 400-meter dash, Deandrea Williams ’27, also in his first collegiate event, scored eighth place with a time of 54.72 seconds. In the 60-meter hurdles, TJ Showstead ’26 finished fourth, scoring a time of 8.97 seconds in the finals and 9.04 seconds in the prelims. On the field side, Lin Lin Hutchinson ’25 was the only Brandeis scorer, finishing seventh in the triple jump event with a distance of 11.77 meters (38’ 7-1/2”). Finally, the Judges took third place in the 4×400-meter relay, with the team of Slotky, Sam Rosen ’27, Carleo and Kim scoring a total time of 3:34.66.
Next, the Judges’ track and field teams will travel to Tufts University on Jan. 20 to participate in the Branwen Smith-King Invitational.
Editor’s note: Sports editor Calli Morvay ’26 did not participate in the writing or editing of this article.
