Women’s track and field
Women’s track and field kicked off the final meet of its indoor season on Friday, the Div. III NCAA Championships in Virginia Beach, Va.
Co-captain Lucy Gagnon ’24 took the track first for the Ephs, winning her heat of the mile with a 4:58.37, advancing to the final round. Next up was the 400m school record-holder Bella King-Harvey ’27 in the event’s first heat. King-Harvey ran a 57.18, missing out on qualifying for finals but placing 13th out of 20 as the only first-year running the event.
Genna Girard ’24 raced in the 5000m to round out Friday’s events for the Ephs, running a season best of 16:52.85, earning her fourth place overall and All-American honors.
Opening Saturday’s events for the Ephs, Rafaela Delgado Carpio-Rivero ’27 placed 16th in the triple jump with an excellent mark of 11.59m. In the mile championship final later that day, Gagnon placed 10th with a final time of 5:16.41.
The Ephs wrapped up the weekend with perhaps their most exciting race: the 4x400m relay, featuring the squad of King-Harvey, co-captain Camryn Taylor ’24, Claire Jensen ’27, and Cate Donaldson ’27 — a group that has stunned throughout the indoor season and did so once again.
Throughout the season, the women’s 4x400m has not faced much competition. This, however, was not the case at this weekend’s NCAA Championships, according to Taylor. “The team that ended up winning, Rochester, was in our heat, so they were out in front of us,” she said. “That was nice, because it helped push us to go a little faster.” The relay did indeed run faster at the meet, breaking the school record, placing third in the event, and earning All-American honors.
The competition concluded the indoor portion of the Ephs’ track and field season, as the team kicks off the outdoor season at the Emory Spring Break Classic on March 15 and 16.
Men’s track and field
Men’s track and field also competed in Virginia Beach at the Div. III NCAA Championships last weekend.
Co-captain Jackson Anderson ’24 opened the meet with a slew of personal bests in the first four events of the heptathlon, with a 6.71m in the long jump, a 12.84m shot put, and a 6.78 in the 60m, breaking his previous school record by .06 seconds.
In the preliminary round of the 800m, Zach Liu-Walter ’26 ran a 1:53.70 for a 15th place finish. John Lucey ’24 and Chuckie Namiot ’25 represented the Ephs in the 5000m final, placing 10th and 13th, respectively, with times of 14:09.67 and 14:22.19.
Anderson opened the final day of competition with a performance as impressive as the first, placing second in the heptathlon. While the pole vault did not go as he had hoped, he followed it with an astounding performance in the 1000m. In what Taylor called a gritty race, Anderson improved his time by 10 seconds for a time of 2:38.83, earning a heptathlon finish of 5,419 points, improving upon his previous school record and earning him All-American status.
In the 3000m final, a race Anderson noted as one of the weekend’s highlights, Nate Lentz ’24 finished sixth with a final time of 8:11.14. The performance earned Lentz All-American honors. “Nate is such an exciting racer to watch,” he said. “We were all lined up at the start of the first turn cheering. He comes around and flashes a big smile, and then we knew it was going to be a good race.”
After a winter of several injuries and unconventional practice spaces due to the demolition of the Towne Field House, the team is proud of the performance put on at this year’s NCAA Championships and looks forward to the outdoor season. “We’ve done a great job making do with the facilities we have, but there’s nothing like running on a warm spring night — I’m excited for a lot of that,” Anderson said.
The men’s team is traveling to Atlanta as well for the Emory Spring Break Classic on March 15 and 16.
Skiing
Keelan Durham ’25, the only Eph to qualify for the NCAA Ski Championships in Steamboat Springs, Colo., competed in the individual start 7.5k skate race as well as the mass start 20k classic race.
Durham’s arrival in Steamboat, nearly a week prior to his first race, helped him to adjust to the race’s altitude: The competition is held nearly 5,000 feet above the highest point at Prospect Mountain, the Ephs’ home course, presenting a challenge for endurance athletes who do not regularly train at altitude.
Steamboat’s environment, however, presents benefits as well as challenges, Durham said. “It snowed pretty much constantly the first three days we were out there, and then it got really sunny around Wednesday, which gave it time to kind of set up and ended up being pretty perfect conditions for the skate day,” he explained.
The ideal great conditions as well as skiing alongside a friend from the University of New Hampshire’s team made the first kilometer of Durham’s skate ski the highlight of his past weekend’s racing. Durham finished 30th in the race, improving upon his finish at last year’s NCAA Championship.
In the mass start 20k classic race, Durham fought through four laps of a steep and technical 5k loop and finished 37th among the nation’s top skiers.
“The men’s team had a really strong season,” Durham said, noting that although only one member of the team qualified this year, two of his teammates came very close. “It was a huge step forward from last year, and I’m really, really happy about that… I’m excited for one more season here.”
Men’s squash
This past weekend Nick Agger ’27, John Nicholson ’26, and Will Comyns ’24 traveled to Philadelphia, representing men’s squash (15-8, 8-0 NESCAC) in the College Squash Association’s National Singles and Doubles Championships.
Agger, the only Eph in the singles bracket, won his first round with a gritty comeback after splitting the first four games of with his opponent, Denison University’s No. 1, Juan Felipe Hernandez. Though he won the match’s third and fourth games against a fierce opponent, No. 85 in the world from Western Ontario, Agger fell in the second round 2-3.
Playing doubles, Nicholson and Comyns won the first round of their bracket, beating Hobart’s doubles team in three decisive games. Despite a promising start, with the pair winning its first game against Cornell 11- 6, the match ended 1-3 for the Ephs, concluding the team’s play in the tournament as well as for the season.
Women’s squash
Sophia Koehler ’27, Rachel Miller ’27, Rhea Pandit ’27, and Melanie Wang ’27 closed the women’s squash (11-11, 5-3 NESCAC) season in Philadelphia last weekend at the College Squash Association’s National Singles Championships.
Though Koehler and Miller were each able to take a game off of skilled opponents, each fell in the first round, as did Pandit.
Though she also lost the first round of the main bracket, Wang forged ahead to capture the consolation bracket, winning each of its three rounds in emphatic straight sets, including the last against Princeton’s Josephine Klein. “Watching Melanie play was super exciting,” Koehler said. “[The Princeton win] was a huge one. The others were easier for her, but this was awesome. She played really well.”
Looking ahead, the young but impressive team anticipates further improvement. “We’re not graduating any seniors,” Koehler said. “We’re getting three new girls next year, and the seven of us who are all freshmen — we’re going to be way more experienced. Next year is gonna be a really great year.”
For their performances this season, Wang was named the NESCAC Rookie of the Year and a NESCAC First Team Honoree, while Koehler and Miller were awarded NESCAC Second Team honors.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Princeton’s Josephine Klein was ranked No. 2. The incorrect ranking was removed from the article on March 13 at 12:57 p.m.
