This past Saturday, the Judges, along with six other colleges, traveled to western Massachusetts to take part in the Amherst Spring Fling. This week saw the continuation of underclassman dominating the rankings, with a few seniors and juniors placing here and there. The women’s track and field team placed fifth overall with 30 points, just one point ahead of Mount Holyoke College, and the men’s team came in third with 54 points. 

Julia Bryson ’19 was one of the winning upperclassmen in the women’s division. With a time of two minutes and 20.36 seconds, Bryson came in second place in the 800-meter dash, scoring five points for the Judges, and her teammates claimed the fifth through ninth places. She continued to lead in the 4x400-meter relay, running the final leg to put the Brandeis A team in second place. Along with Bryson, Leinni Valdez ’21 and Lisbeth Valdez ’21 ran the first and second legs before handing off the baton to Andrea Bolduc ’21. Finishing  in second place with a time of 4:12.60, the team added seven seconds to their seeded time. The B team came in fifth place.

 In the 4x100-meter relay, the Judges came in second pielace with only two teams competing. Their  time of 52.04 won the women five more points. Kanya Brown ’19 began the race and handed off to Sonali Anderson ’22. Tessa Holleran ’21 ran the third leg, with Anna Touitou ‘22 running the last split. Earlier, Anderson ran the 100-meter hurdles and finished second with a time of 15.74. She was followed by Holleran in seventh place.

Erin Magill ‘22 claimed the bronze medal in the 5000-meter, or 3.1 mile, run with a time of 18:42.88. Seeded with a time of 18:50.00, she dropped just under eight seconds. In the field events, Kerry Tanke ’22 placed seventh in the javelin throw with a distance of 30.05 meters, or approximately 98.6 feet.

On the men’s side, the Judges started things out well with Lorenzo Maddox ’20 running an 11.14 second 100-meter dash that brought him into third place. He dropped 0.50 seconds from his seeded time. Regan Charie ’19 followed in the 200-meter dash, placing third and dropping .36 seconds with a time of 22.74.

Aaron Portman ‘22 claimed fourth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.40, followed by Jacob Grant ’22 in sixth place. Portman also ran the first leg in the Brandeis A team 4x400-meter relay, helping the Judges claim second place. Erez Needleman ’20, Jacob and Grant Judd ’20 rounded out the relay team. In the 4x100-meter relay, the A relay team, consisting of Maddox, Michael Kroker ’19, Jacob Ward ’21 and Charie, worked to take third place, with the Brandeis B relay team coming in just behind them to claim fourth.  

In the long-distance races, Matthew Driben ’22 ran a 15:35.46 in the 5000-meter run, a whole 10 seconds faster than his seeded time. Dan Curley ’20 and Mark Murdy ’21 followed to claim fifth and seventh places, respectively.

Later on in the field events, Aaron Corin ’22 vaulted a height of 4.10 meters, or almost 13.5 feet, in the pole vault. This earned him the silver medal, while teammate Breylen Ammen ’21 came in fourth place. Ammen also participated in the javelin throw. With a distance of 48.34 meters, or 158.6 feet, he claimed second place. Scott Grote ’19 also threw a distance of 12.55 meters in the shot put event and 37.59 meters in the discus. He placed fourth in the shot put and fifth in the discus.

In the next two weeks, the Judges will travel to Connecticut College for the Silfen Invitational and to Cambridge for the Sean Collier Invitational at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The following week, we will be cheering the Judges on from over a thousand miles away as they make their way to Emory University in Atlanta, GA for the University Athletic Association Championship.