The men and women’s track and field team had two athletes, Mohamed Sidique ’15 and Ashley Piccirillo-Horan ’17, place at the indoor Eastern Conference Athletic Conference championships this past Friday and Saturday. 

Sidique placed sixth in the men’s triple jump on Friday, landing at 14.27 meters, and Piccirillo-Horan placed second in the women’s 1,000- meter run with a time of three minutes, 2.31 seconds. 

The teams also sent athletes to Tufts University this past weekend for the Tufts Last Chance Meet.

Sidique admitted that while it was not his best performance, he was pleased overall generally, especially since he is coming off of a recent inflamed knee injury. 

“It wasn’t my personal best. For me, I’ve been hurt for the past five weeks, so I just got back last week for [University Athletic Association championships],” Sidique said. 

“So when you look at it from that perspective it’s just like, ‘OK, I’ll miss NCAA’s [tournament] but I’m going to be better for outdoors.’” 

Piccirillo-Horan ran faster than she had been running throughout most of the season and said she was “pleasantly surprised.” 

“I was not expecting to go [five] seconds faster than I had been running all season and was not expecting to place. So it was super exciting to find out how well I did, finally feeling better after my bouts of sickness this whole season.” 

She added, “It was a super awesome way to end a very difficult [inside] season.”

Kyra Shreeve ’18 also ran the 1,000-meter race in addition to Piccirillo-Horan, finishing with a time of 3:04.96, placing 18th overall. 

In the women’s 3,000-meter run, Lydia McCaleb ’17 placed 18th with a time of 10:30.60. 

On the men’s side, Jarrett Harrigan ’15 placed 16th in the 3,000-meter run, finishing with a time of 8:48.82. 

At the Tufts Last Chance Meet on Saturday afternoon, Kelsey Whitaker ’16 took first place in the mile run, completing the mile in 4:57.15 in the seeding race.

She then finished with a time of 5:15.18 in the finals. 

Grady Ward ’16 finished sixth in the mile run with a time of 4:22.51 in his final race. 

Sidique expressed his excitement for the upcoming outdoor season, scheduled to begin on March 21. 

“For me, the indoor season is over,” he said. “We’re just waiting for outdoors right now so we’re going to focus on that.”

The biggest news for the team came on Monday morning.

It was then announced that Whitaker had earned an invitation for the NCAA Division III Championship.

The trip will mark Whitaker’s second year in a row at the competition.

Whitaker’s event will be in the mile run; arguably her best event.She is the ninth-ranked competitor in the 17-woman field.

Whitaker will be one of the five New England runners in the race, but the only member of the entire UAA conference. Last season, Whitaker finished in 13th place in the mile run. She is hoping to improve upon that finish this coming competition.

Whitaker’s best time in the mile this season came at the New England Division III Championships, where she finished with a time of 5:00.90.

In addition to the Indoor Track and Field Championships, Whitaker has also competed for the Judges in two NCAA Cross Country Championships in the past two years.

The NCAA championship will be held in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Friday and Saturday.

Brandeis begins the outdoor track and field season at the Bridgewater State University Invitational on March 21.