NEW YORK, N.Y. – Sophomore Ryan Stender (Amherst, Mass./Amherst Regional) earned his first career All-University Athletic Association honor in commanding fashion today, winning the 3,000-meter run at the 2016 UAA Championships hosted by NYU at the Armory.
Stender ran 8:33.52 – about two seconds off his personal best – to defeat Emory's Shane Sullivan by 1.05 seconds. Both runners trailed Dillon Williams of Washington University headed into the final lap, but Stender had a tremendous kick on the final lap, running the final 200 meters in under 30 seconds (29.62 seconds) to take the victory. Stender is the first Brandeis runner to win the 3,000 since Paul Norton in 2010, making them the only two Judges since 2000 to take the event.
Brandeis had one other All-UAA performance for the men, coming on the first day of competition. Senior Evan Scott (North Kingstown, R.I. / North Kingstown) finished with the second-best jump of his career, 1.90 meters (6 feet, 2 ¾ inches) by two inches. It was tied for the second-best jump of the meet with Scott clearing on his third attempt and Alex Arteaga of WashU making it on his second. Scott beat out junior teammate Mark Franklin (Auburn, N.H./Pinkerton Acad.), who had his best placement at the UAA Indoor championships with a height of 1.85 meters (6 feet, ¾ inches) to come in fourth . Franklin has improved by one spot in each of his indoor appearances.
The Judges had one other All-Association performance, coming on the second day of action. The women's distance medley relay won All-UAA honors for the fourth year running, coming in third with a time of 12:06.92. The lead 1,200-meter leg was run in 3:47.32 by senior Kelsey Whitaker (Kingston, Mass./Notre Dame Acad.), who has been a member of each of the award-winning DMRs and run each of the legs except the second. Sophomore Haliana Burhans(Charlotte, Vt./Champlain Valley Union) ran the 400-meter leg for the second year in a row with a time of 58.72 seconds. Senior Tove Freeman (Oakham, Mass./Quabbin Regional) ran the 800-meter leg in 2:21.87, while rookie Emily Bryson (Quincy, Mass./No. Quincy) closed out the mile in 4:58.60. It was the first indoor track All-UAA honor for both Freeman and Bryson. The Brandeis quartet finished about two seconds behind Washington U. in second place.
Bryson delivered a second scoring performance in the 3,000-meter run, where she finished in fifth place with a time of 10:05.91. Bryson is currently ranked 14th in Division III in the 3K. One other scoring event for the Brandeis women was the 4x400-meter relay, where Freeman, rookie Doyin Ogundiran (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East) Whitaker and Burhans came in sixth place with time of 4:01.14.
On the men's side, senior Adam Berger (Concord, N.H./Concord) scored points for the Judges in both the long and triple jumps, turning in lifetime bests in each. Berger placed fourth in the long jump with a distance of 6.61 meters (21 feet, 8 ¼ inches) on his fourth jump to finish about four-and-a-half inches out of All-UAA position. It was his highest career finish at the UAA Championships. On his second leap in the triple jump, Berger went 13.11 meters (43 feet, ¼ inch), to place fifth.
Both Brandeis teams finished in seventh place at the championships with the men tallying 26 points and the women nine points. Washington University swept the championships, defeating Chicago on the women's side, 167-128, an edging Emory, 98-96, on the men's side.