Yale Athletics

It was a big week for canines in the world of track and field, with the Yale Bulldogs splitting up to travel to the home of the NC State wolfpack on Thursday, March 28 and to the UConn huskies’ Dog Fight Invite on Saturday, March 30.

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.