Yale Athletics

At the 2021 New England Championships, the men’s cross country team’s three fastest finishers — Varun Oberai ’25, Calvin Katz ’25 and Winslow Atkeson ’25 — were all first years. Although the team finished seventh overall that year at the Ivy League Championships, Leo Brewer ’25 and Elon Abergel ’25 also made their mark by placing in Yale’s top six.

The next season, in 2022, the Bulldogs had a modest performance during the regular season and finished fifth overall at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships and ninth at the NCAA Northeast Regional Meet.

The Bulldogs began their 2023 season on a high note, taking second place overall at the Codfish Bowl meet, with Daegan Cutter ’27 winning the 8-kilometer race. The very next weekend Yale brought home the team title at the annual Paul Short Run for the second time in school history. The Bulldogs then rounded out a strong season with a fourth-place team finish at the Ivy Championships and a sixth-place finish at the regional championship. In his senior season, Sean Kay ’24 represented Yale at the NCAA National Championship, finishing 177th.

The Elis opened their 2024 campaign with a win over Harvard in a dual meet, where standout junior Owen Karas ’26 earned the gold medal. For the second year in a row, Yale took second at the Codfish Bowl meet. The Bulldogs capped off the year with fifth-place finishes at the Ivy Championship meet and NCAA Northeast Regionals.

LILY BELLE POLING
Lily Belle Poling is the Managing Editor of the Yale Daily News. She previously covered housing and homelessness and was a production and design editor. Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, she is a junior in Branford College majoring in English.