MIDDLEBURY, VT and SPRINGFIELD, MASS. – The men's and women's track and field teams kicked off the championship portion of the season with the Division III New England Track and Field Championships.  The men's championship took place at Middlebury College while the women competed at Springfield College.  In the team standings, the men placed 13^th with 14 points with the women 16^th with 15 points. 

Individually the top performance came from junior Doyin Ogundiran (Dix Hills, N.Y./ Half Hollow Hills East) who ran 2:59.69 to place 2^nd in the 1000m run.  This was just off of Ogundiran's personal best, set earlier this season, and confirms that she could challenge the school record of 2:55.73, set back in 2014, in the future.  Ogundiran is very likely to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the 800 meters. Racing the 1000m shows the strength that will hopefully propel her to All-American status come March. 

The other top five performance came from senior Jordin Carter (Fort Wayne, Ind./ R. Nelson Snider). Carter, who has been having a dream senior season, threw her 15.49m (50-10) to place 4^th in the weight throw.  The throw was the second farthest of Carter's career, only falling short of her school record 15.80m throw recorded less than a week ago.  Carter currently sits second in the UAA with that throw and will hope to use the momentum she has had all season to score valuable points for the Judges next week.

Both the 600m run and the 800m run included two Brandeis athletes each.  In the 600m freshman, Lisbeth Valdez (Providence, R.I./ Hope) ran a small personal best of 1:41.29 to place 8^th.  Junior Maya Sands-Bliss (Williamsburg, Mass./ Amherst Regional) followed Valdez closely in a time of 1:44.58 to place 12^th.  In the 800m Leinni Valdez (Providence, R.I./ Hope), Lisbeth's twin also placed 8^th in a time of 2:23.04.  Sophmore Madeline Hayman (Worcester, Mass./ Burncoat) placed 10^th overall just off of her personal best recording a time of 2:23.95.

It was a day for the middle distances with junior Meaghan Barry (Marlborough, Mass./ Worcester Academy) and senior Kyra Shreeve (Northborough, Mass./ Algonquin Regional) running in the 1000m and mile run respectively.   Barry ran 3:08.58, just shy of her 3:07.73 personal best, to place 17^th while Shreeve ran 5:23.50 to place 14^th in the mile. 

The meet was concluded with a pair of relays for the Judges.  The 4x200m relay sprinted to a time of 1:51.48 to place 12^th.  Leading off was junior Kanya Brown (Amherst, Mass./ Amherst Regional), who was followed by freshman Jordan Brill-Cass (Mansfield, Mass./ Mansfield) and sophomore Kayla Fahey (Kingston, Mass./ Silver Lake Regional) with senior Jessie Moore (Rye, N.Y./ Rye) bringing the quartet home. In 4x400m relay sophomore Lydia Harris (Damariscotta, Maine/ Lincoln Academy) (64.1) led off before passing the baton off to Lisbeth Valdez (61.9), Maya Sands-Bliss (63.8) then took over the penultimate leg before Madeline Hayman (65.4) anchored the team to a 14^th place finish with a time of 4:15.49.

Look for the team next when they battle the rest of the conference at the UAA championships.  The meet takes place at Case Western Reserve on the Feb. 24^th-25^th.

-Eli Waxler '19