Women’s track and field secured a decisive first-place victory at the NESCAC Championship at Wesleyan last Saturday. Finishing with a total of 156 points, the Ephs defeated the Amherst Mammoths by a six-point margin. This year’s win was the team’s 27th NESCAC championship. The team hadn’t placed first since 2019.
Numerous Ephs set personal bests, broke school and NESCAC records, and earned NESCAC champion titles in individual and team events. Claire Jensen ’27, Cate Donaldson ’27, Annika Paluska ’28, and Bella King-Harvey ’27 broke the 4x400m relay NESCAC record with a time of 3:48.13. The previous record had been set by Jensen, Donaldson, King-Harvey, and Camryn Taylor ’24 at the 2024 NESCAC Outdoor Championship at Tufts University last April.
Paluska broke a school record in the 800m with a time of 2:10.30, placing second and earning a new personal best. “It’s a super cool feeling to see the work we put in show up in those ways, but honestly the most exciting part is just being surrounded by teammates and sharing those special moments as a group,” Paluska said.
Rachel Arthur ’25 placed first in the 200m dash with a time of 24.95. Lily Yampolsky ’28 finished the 1500m run with a time of 4:33.96, placing second. Julia Brennan ’27 ran a swift 36:55.33 in the 10,000m run, and placed second in the event. Charlene Peng ’26 placed third in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 10:47.49.
Ella Kirkwood ’28 and Clara Gahm ’28 earned personal bests in the 3000m steeplechase as well, with times of 11:20.20, and 11:25.41, respectively. Ellie Fitzgerald ’26 placed second in the pole vault, jumping 3.75 meters.
In the field events, Maria Fareti ’28 and Chloe Schneeberg ’25 threw personal bests in the hammer throw event, at 49.02 meters and 46.09 meters, respectively. Fareti claimed a NESCAC title with a 12.41-meter throw in the shot put. Amelie Jamanka ’26 also secured a title in the high jump, where she set a new personal best of 1.68 meters.
The Ephs snagged these victories despite facing challenging practice conditions leading up to the competition due to the demolition of the Towne Field House. “We have to train at Bennington [College],” captain Jae Yu ’25 said. “The facility was not built for track training, and it’s half an hour away, which is a long commute, so it was difficult to get the kind of training that most other teams have.”
Maggie Nichols ’28 believes that camaraderie contributed to the Ephs’ success despite difficult weather at the meet. “Going into the day, we knew it wasn’t going to be the best weather or the best conditions — but that we all still brought our best efforts and showed up for one another was more motivation than anything else,” she wrote in an email to the Record.
Championship meets are unique due to space limitations for competitors. Coaches are given free rein to assign three competitors per event from the pool of athletes that have qualified for the meet, with a couple exceptions. “It becomes sort of a game of strategy, because you’re trying to win points, but you have to be careful where you put certain people,” Yu told the Record.
This means competitors sometimes have to take one for the team and compete in events they might not prefer. “It is unfortunate, because it means some people aren’t running their best or their favorite event, simply because there are too many people on the team,” Yu said.
Fareti played a crucial role in securing the team’s narrow six-point victory over Amherst. “Maria pulled through with a huge 22 point score out of 156. She had the highest solo score in the hammer throw,” Yu said. “She also scored in the discus throw. Her two points in the discus throw were essentially what cemented our victory because, up until that point in the meet, Amherst could have caught up to us.”
For Fareti, the team’s strong performance was the culmination of months of preparation. “I’ve put in a lot of hard work leading up to this — a lot of hours that most people don’t see — so it felt amazing to have that pay off in a way that helped the team,” Fareti said. “Still, I truly believe it was a full team effort, we’re all constantly trying to be the best version of ourselves possible.”
In a show of the team’s strong relationship, students take part in a fun tradition every meet called ‘the whoosh’, according to Yu. “For any relay runner’s last stretch of that relay, we try to line up on either side of the track and make a tunnel with our arms, and then, ‘move them along,’” she said. “The whole team is pushing them forward. That was what the end of the meet was, and that’s how we always end on a really high note, because we’re all together as a team.”
The Ephs will compete at home in the Farley Inter-Regional Extravaganza on Friday, May 9 for Senior Day. After that, nationals this June will be the last stop this year for team members who qualify.
