Yale Athletics

Yale was one of nine universities — five of which have canine mascots — to send its track and field teams to the University of Connecticut to compete in the UConn Dog Fight on Saturday, April 1.

In their second meet of the outdoor season, the Bulldogs finished in the middle of the dog pack, with the men coming in fifth and the women coming in sixth out of nine. These finishes were secured without many of Yale’s athletes, who rested this weekend in advance of their meet next weekend in Cambridge.

“We are progressing well,” coach Shoehlater told the News. “We rested many of our athletes following our training trip to North Carolina and in preparation for this weekend’s competition against Oxford and Cambridge.”

On the men’s side of events, Yale’s performance was marked by strong performances in the sprint and field competitions. Jacob Kao ’25 led the Bulldog pack in the 100m dash with a 10.81 second finish, his first time under 11 seconds since arriving at Yale. In the 200m, Andrew Farr ’26 also PRed with a finish of 21.87 seconds. Finally, Chris Ward ’24 led the Bulldogs in the field events, placing second overall in the shot put with a PR of 17.34m.

Since the beginning of the outdoor season, fellow thrower Matt Appel ’24 has consistently shined, while Ward has greatly improved over the past few months. Ward describes their relationship as teammates as providing them both with motivation this season.

“Matt has been dominant in shot put for a long time and this was actually the first time I’ve beaten him in a competition,” Ward wrote to the News. “Having him ahead of me has been a great motivator and I don’t think either of us would be where we are today without one another. Seeing each other work hard and throw far pushes us both to work even harder and do the best that we can.”

On the women’s side, the Bulldogs again had strong showings in the sprint and field events. Peyton Parker ’25 notched the first PR of the day for the women’s team in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:05.07. Meanwhile in the field, Bella Bergloff ’24 PR’ed in the discus with a 43.14m throw, 3.58m better than her previous record. Maria Leskovec ’24 threw a 51.17m PR in the hammer throw, putting her sixth on Yale’s all-time list. Finally, Sophie Wright ’24 set a PR in the triple jump with a distance of 11.60m.

When asked about her and her fellow throwers’ recent PR’s, Bergloff attributed their successes to a few different factors.

“Everyone has been putting up good marks, either a PR or close to it, which I feel like reflects the work we’ve been putting in in the weight room and our consistent, intentional practice,” Bergloff wrote to the News. “Coach Duke does a really great job of finding specific cues for all of us to iron out our throws.”

Next weekend, the rest of Yale’s athletes will join the team in Cambridge, Mass. on Saturday, April 8, where they will compete with Harvard in the Harvard-Yale vs. Oxford-Cambridge meet.