MEDFORD, Mass. – For the second week in a row, the Brandeis track and field team headed to Tufts University, this week competing in the Cupid Challenge. This was a non-scoring event. 

TOP PERFORMANCES, WOMEN

• The top race of the day for the Brandeis women was the 600-meter run. Sophomore Lisbeth Valdez (Providence, R.I./Hope) finished in second place with a time of 1:41.19. She edged senior Maya Bliss (Williamstown, Mass./Amherst Regional) by four-tenths of a second, as Bliss finished in 1:41.59. Finally, Lisbeth's twin sister Leinni Valdez (Providence, R.I./Hope) was fourth in 1:42.00.
• The Judges also had two more third-place finishes from a pair of rookies. Devin Hiltunen (Quincy, Mass./North Quincy), who placed third in the 200-meter dash. She turned in a time of 27.04 seconds.
• Classmate Sonali Anderson (Fayetteville, Ga./Whitewater) ran 9.34 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles in the prelims for the third-fastest time, then matched her own school record in the finals at 9.32 seconds to finish in third overall.
• Senior Kanya Brown (Amherst, Mass./Amherst Regional) fought through two preliminary races to reach the finals of the 60-meter dash. She ran 8.29 in the prelims, 8.21 in the semifinals and 8.26 in the finals to place sixth. All three times were a season-best.
• Senior Meaghan Barry (Marlborough, Mass./Worcester Academy) also turned in a top-10 finish in the mile run with a time of 5:29.36.

TOP PERFORMANCES, MEN

• The top performer of the day for the men was rookie Dion Morris-Evans (Canal Fulton, Ohio/Northwest). He finished in third place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.75 seconds and third in the high jump with a collegiate-best leap of 1.80 meters (5-10 ¾).
• Junior Jack Allan (Wrentham, Mass./King Phillip Regional) also placed in the 60 hurdles, coming in fifth in 8.85 seconds. Both Allan and Morris Evans ran 8.84 in the prelims, with the first-year edging the junior by seven-thousandths of a second. Allan also took sixth in the long jump at 6.13 meters (20-1 ½).
• Sophomore Breylen Ammen (Lincoln, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) also had a third-place finish in the pole vault, reaching a height of 4.40 meters (14-5 ¼).
• Sophomore Kevin Truong (Milford, Mass./Milford) was ninth in the triple jump with a distance of 11.40 meters (37-5).
• Rookie Aaron Portman (Wheeling, Ill./Adlai E. Stevenson) finished in the top 10 in the 600-meter run with a PR of 1:26.46.
• Senior Scott Grote (Greenfield, Mass./Greenfield) rounded out the top-10 finishers in the shot put with a heave of 12.82 meters (42-0 ¾)

UP NEXT

• The Judges head back to Boston University next weekend for the Valentines Invitational, while also competing at the Gordon Kelly Invitational at MIT.