The men and women’s track and field teams traveled to the University of Chicago for the University Athletic Association championships last weekend and picked up a pair of medals in the process.

Mohamed Sidique ’15 earned a silver medal in the men’s triple jump–the third UAA medal of his collegiate career in the event. 

The Judges also got a third-place finish in the women’s distance medley from the quartet of Kristi Pisarik ’15, Halina Burhans ’18, Ashley Picirillo-Horan ’17 and Kelsey Whitaker ’16. 

The group ran a combined time of 12 minutes, 22.72 seconds, a little under three seconds faster than the fourth-place squad from Carnegie Mellon University but well behind the second-place Washington University in St. Louis. 

Pisarik explained that the four relied on the experience of their teammates to earn the third-place finish at the event.

“Knowing that I had the other girls relying on me to give us a good placement in the race, I made sure to not let myself get pushed back by the other competitors. It was actually an aggressive race so I had to fight to keep my place in the front, and then once it cleared out, I was just running with any fuel that I had left.”

Whitaker just missed All-UAA honors in the one-mile race after earning All-UAA honors in the distance medley running the same distance. Her time of 5:01.77 earned her a fourth-place finish in the one-mile race, just under two seconds out of third place. 

Burhans continued her strong year in the sprints, picking up a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter dash by stopping the clock at 26.53 seconds, improving on her time from the heats by seven hundredths of a second.

Whittaker, Burhans and Picirillo-Horan joined Kyra Shreeve ’18 in the 1600-meter relay, racing to a time of 4:11.04, good for sixth place. 

Lydia McCaleb ’17 and Kate Farrell ’17 rounded out the squad by setting respective collegiate bests with times of 10:33.37 and 10:37.00 in the 3000-meter run.

The Judges also sent Pisarik and Picirillo-Horan to the one-mile run where they picked up eighth and 13th-place finishes, respectively.

Pisairk crossed the line at 5:15.79, an improvement of almost a full second on her time from the preliminary race.

Picirillo-Horan stopped the timer at the 5:22.25 mark, a step behind her preliminary race and fewer than three seconds out of a top-10 spot in the race.

On the men’s side, Sidique’s distance of 13.78 meters earned him his third-career All-UAA honors. Although he was unable to defend his triple jump title from a year ago, Sidique’s leap was not far behind Emory junior Max Hoberman’s title-clincher of 14.49 meters.

The men got a top-10 finish in the 400-meter relay, where Marcello Brociner ’18, Jeremy Wilson ’17, Omar Scruggs ’17 and Nick Wactor ’17 combined for a sixth-place finish in a combined time of 3:35.13.

Grady Ward ’16 won the first heat of the one-mile run, stopping the clock at 4:26.15. 

Although his final time was just under two seconds slower than his time in the preliminary race, he earned an eighth-place finish in the race, just under a second faster than the next competitor. 

On the first day of competition, Mark Franklin ’17 earned a top-six finish at the high jump for the second year in a row, improving on his sixth-place jump from last year by registering a fifth-place jump of 1.86 meters. 

Also running for the Judges was Liam Garvey ’18, who set a personal best in the 5000-meter race with a time of 15:33.33. Teammate Adam Berger ’15 improved his personal record in the long jump by registering a distance of 6.13 meters.

Berger’s leap claimed a 10th-place finish at the event and was less than one hundredth of a meter behind the ninth-place jump.

Jarret Harrigan ’15 took home an 11th-place finish in the 3000-meter race, one of three Judges to run the event. Harrigan crossed the line at the 8:55.65 mark, less than five seconds behind the race’s 10th-place runner from Emory.

Both squads took home seventh-place overall finishes at the event, with the women’s team earning 13 points and the men's team earning 12 points. 

“I saw talent, focus, and drive from our underclassmen. Haliana was more of an athlete than we ever could have asked of her; Ashley was also a trooper, giving her all even though she was hiding tissues up her sleeve on our warm up because of her cold. Kelsey's an unbelievable runner, and I'm glad she's got one more year ahead of her, because she's already at such an impressive placer.” 

The Judges will continue the indoor championship season this weekend with the Eastern Conference Athletic Association Championships in New York, a two-day event this Friday and Saturday. 

Brandeis also looks to send a number of competitors to the NCAA Championships, scheduled to take place on March 13 and 14 in Winston-Salem, N.C., hosted by Roanoke College.