BOSTON and MEDFORD, Mass. – The Brandeis University track and field teams took part in two meets over the weekend. The women ran at the Boston University Terrier Classic on Friday, Jan. 30, while the men split at the Terrier Classic and the Tufts Stampede on Saturday, Jan. 31.
For the women, the Judges had a pair of performances at BU that cracked Division III's national Top 50 list. Rookie soccer standout Haliana Burhans (Charlotte, Vt./Champlain Valley Union) improved to 34th in Division III and third in the UAA in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.01 seconds. The time also qualified her for the New England Division III championships and the ECAC Championships. Burhans also qualified for the Division III New England Championships in the 400-meter dash with a personal best of 1:00.51, ninth-best in the UAA, as did junior Tove Freeman (Oakham, Mass./Quabbin Regional), with a time of 1:01.99, 16th in the conference.
Junior distance star Kelsey Whitaker (Kingston, Mass./Notre Dame Acad.) is now ranked 13th in Division III and tops the UAA in the mile run with a time of 5:03.58, also good for a spot at the 2015 Open New England Championships later this season. (Both times are converted for national rankings because they were run on a banked track.)
Sophomore Ashley Piccirillo-Horan (North Granby, Conn./Granby Memorial) ran a personal best in the mile of 5:13.79 qualifying her for DIII New Englands and ECACs and placing her eighth in the UAA.
In the 3,000-meter run, sophomore Lydia McCaleb (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) ran a personal best and an ECAC qualifier of 10:36.31, while classmate Kate Farrell (Windham, N.H./Windham) ran a personal best of 10:37.35 just narrowly missing the ECAC qualifier of 10:37.00. Their times are 10th and 11th in the UAA, respectively.
The Judges return to Tufts next weekend for the Tufts Invitational.