Yale Athletics
In the penultimate weekend of their outdoor regular season, Yale’s men’s and women’s track and field teams split up to compete across the country in meets starting Thursday, April 18, and finishing on Saturday, April 20.
On Thursday, the Bulldogs sent one athlete to compete in Walnut, California, at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays, followed by a larger group of athletes that headed to the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday, April 19. The remainder of the athletes stayed home to host the Mark Young Invitational at Coxe Cage in New Haven on Saturday, April 20.
“Some great performances across the board in every event group indicate that we are in a good place as we head into the championship season,” head coach David Shoehalter wrote to the News.
On Thursday, Sean Kay ’24 was the lone representative of the Bulldogs in southern California, earning 8th place in the 10k with a time of 30:08.01. The competition was held at Mt. San Antonio College.
On Friday, the women’s team had an impressive day at the Wake Forest Invitational. Juliette Kosmont ’27 led the Bulldogs with a new school record in the 100m, taking second place with a time of 11.80 seconds. Meanwhile, Gloria Guerrier ’27 took third in the 400m hurdles with a PR of 59.64 seconds, Linde Fonville ’26 took second overall in the 1500m with a PR of 4:24.05, Dominique Romain ’25 took fourth in the long jump with a 5.93m leap to tie her previous PR and Maria Leskovec ’24 took eighth in the hammer with a 54.94m throw.
In the relays, the 4x100m team consisted of Sophie Spokes ’27, Makayla White ’26, Romain and Kosmont, who took first with a time of 46.37 seconds. The 4x400m team consisted of Guerrier, Bridget Vitu ’25, Ella Mainwaring Foster ’24 and Peyton Parker ’25 who also took first with a time of 3:47.93.
Meanwhile, the men’s team at Wake Forest was led by Brian Di Bassinga ’26 and Isiah Udofia ’26, taking wins in the triple jump and long jump with 14.41m and 7.51m finishes, respectively. Chris Ward ’24 took third in the shot put with a throw of 17.60m, putting him second on Yale’s all-time list. On the track, Brian Gamble ’27 set a PR in the 1500m with a time of 3:46.25 and Owen Karas ’26 won his heat in the invitational section of the 1500m with a time of 3:40.80. Kit Colson ’25 set a PR in the 100m dash with a time of 10.59 seconds and Thomas Cirrito ’24 set a PR in the 800m with a time of 1:48.84, his first finish under the 1:49 mark.
“We had many great performances at Wake Forest this weekend,” men’s captain Matt Appel ’24 wrote to the News. “Two in particular I would like to name were from first year Julliete Kosmont who broke the 100m dash school record and Chris Ward who moved to #2 all time in the outdoor shot put while securing a regional mark in likely both the shot put and discus. Fresh off the plane, I was able to make it to the Mark Young Invitational to witness even more PR’s. I am super happy with the effort of the team as a whole this week, and it showed off on the track.”
Finally, the Bulldogs rounded off competition on Saturday at the Mark Young Invitational hosted in New Haven at Coxe Cage. The Bulldogs hosted Fordham, Brown, Stony Brook, Iona and St. Peter’s, with the women’s team taking second and the men’s team taking third.
On the women’s side of competition, Sophia Karperos ’24 started things off for the Bulldogs with a victory in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing in 11:24.28. Also in the distance events, Priya Gangadharan ’27 took sixth with a PR of 4:46.36 in the 1500m, and Miranda Lorsbach ’26 and Kathryn Rodrigues ’24 took first and second in the 5000m with finishes of 17:35.85 and 17:39.14, respectively. In the mid-distance events, Kalista Villatoro ’27 took first in the 800m with a 2:13.08 finish. Finally, in the jumps, Alexandra Bonn ’27 took first in the triple jump with an 11.88m PR, while Sydney Kunkler ’24 took first in the long jump with a 5.47m leap.
On the men’s side of events, Jack Sendek ’25 led the Bulldogs with a 3:51.86 finish for first place in the 1500m, while Ronan Luff ’27 finished right behind him with a 3:52.54 PR. In the sprints, Malcolm Grant ’27 took first in the 200m with a 22.42 second PR, while Andrew Fu ’27 took second in the 100m with a time of 11.17 seconds. In the field, Alex Sundberg ’24 took first in the hammer throw with a 45.71m toss, and Elliot Wessel ’26 took first in the pole vault with a 4.30m clearance.
“We had quite a few impressive performances on the women’s side this past weekend,” assistant coach Connor Shannahan wrote to the News. “Notably, first year Juliette Kosmont broke the school record in the 100m running a time of 11.80 seconds. We also saw multiple other athletes put forth personal best performances in their respective events. The team is looking forward to the next few weeks of training as we get closer to postseason competition, beginning with the Ivy League Championships on May 4th.”
The Bulldogs have one more weekend of competition left before their postseason kicks off with the Ivy League Outdoor Track and Field Championships which will take place on May 4 in Princeton, New Jersey. They will compete this weekend at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on April 25 through 27 before coming back to New Haven on April 28 to host the Yale Springtime Invitational.