The men and women’s track and field teams both competed in the Tufts Snowflake Classic at Tufts University on Saturday and had several members record top-10 finishes on a day that saw low temperatures and late March snow. 

Many regional competitors were at the meet, such as Bridgewater State University and Waltham rival Bentley University.

Grady Ward ’16 had the highest finish on the day for the men’s team with a time of two minutes and 4.03 seconds in the 800-meter run that placed him sixth out of a field of 70. 

In a strong showing by the first-year competitors, Aaron Karlin ’18 and Benjamin Fong ’18 also placed in the top 20 in the 800-meter run, with times of 2:07.42 and 2:08.22, respectively. 

Adam Beckwith ’18 notched two strong finishes by coming in 10th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.23 and 16th in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.83. Eddie Tai ’16 finished three spots below in the 100-meter dash, finishing in 11.99 seconds, which set a new personal best for Tai.

Also in the 200-meter run were Makalani Mack ’16, who ran the race in a time of 25.50, and Jeremy Wilson ’17, who finished with a time of 24.32, good enough for a top-20 finish.

Beckwith thought the weather conditions were tough on all of the runners competing, saying, “The cold and the snow really made it difficult to warm up and get ready to run, but I noticed that once people got out on the track, they seemed much warmer and ready to compete fully.”

Ryan Stender ’18 recorded a 10th-place finish in the 1,500-meter run. Stender finished the event with a time of 4:08.92, a little over half a second ahead of the next fastest participant. Mitchell Hutton ’18 joined Stender in the top 20 with a time of 4:14.16.

Rounding out the superb day for first-year competitors, Daniel Shin ’18 finished in 10th place in the 400-meter hurdles for the men.

Beckwith believes that the older members of the team have been instrumental in the success that the rookies have had. “All of the older men on the team have taught us a lot about effort and dedication, really setting a great example for the newer athletes here.”

Jonathan Gilman ’15 buoyed the team in the javelin throw, finishing in fifth place with a personal- best 47.00 meter throw. 

Also throwing for the Judges were Max Berner ’16 and Eric Leviton ’16.

The two finished in 19th and 24th place, respectively.

Adam Berger ’16 and Brian Louis ’16 both added strong showings in the Triple Jump, recording jumps of 12.77 and 12.72 meters respectively.

In the high jump, Mark Franklin ’17 finished in 15th with a jump of 1.88 meters.

The women’s team had an even stronger showing at the Snowflake Classic, netting multiple top-five finishes for Brandeis.

Lydia McCaleb ’17 got the Judges’ only first-place finish on the competition, running the 5,000-meter event in 18:45.63.

Haliana Burhans ’18 and Tove Freeman ’16 both managed top-10 finishes in the 200-meter dash, with Burhans finishing in second place with a time of 27.00 seconds and Freeman finishing slightly behind in eighth place with a time of 28.12 seconds.

Burhans was behind the first-place runner from Tufts by two-tenths of a second.

Freeman also came in eighth in the 400-meter dash and was the first runner in the 4x400-meter relay. Maggie Hensel ’16 and Ashley Hebard ’17 were the second and third runners, with Burhans at the anchor position to help the squad finish second in the very competitive race. 

Hebard also ran in the 400-meter dash, in which she finished in 32nd place with a time of 1:09.46.

The women’s team had a few more impressive finishes on the day, with Kyra Shreeve ’18 and Hensel combining for third and fourth place finishes in the 800-meter run respectively. Kristi Pisarik ’15 added a second place finish in the 1,500-meter run, making that seven top-10 finishes for the women’s team. 

Pisarik narrowly missed out on first place in the run.

The winning runner from Tufts finished with a time that was less than two seconds faster than hers.

The Judges also competed in the pole vault event, as Beth Deffossez ’18 finished with a vault of 2.60 meters. The leap earned her an 11th- place finish.

The team also fared well in the javelin throw as Alyssa Fenenbock ’15 earned a top-10 finish with a throw of 29.00 meters.

As the season moves on, the weather conditions should presumably get better than they were on Saturday. 

“Looking forward, we are hoping mostly to get some good weather so that we get a chance to perform well,” Beckwith said.

Both the men and women will next compete in the Amherst Invitational at Amherst College this Saturday afternoon.