The men’s and women’s track teams competed in the Farley Inter-Regional Extravaganza (F.I.R.E) meet in Williamstown on Friday and Saturday. The meet was the teams’ first joint competition in front of a home crowd this season. 

The event was also one of the final chances for all of the athletes to compete this season. Unlike many of the team’s previous meets, this one did not restrict its entries, meaning every athlete who was healthy was able to take part in it.

“The spring track season is just not that long… and not everyone is able to run at all of [the meets] … so the F.I.R.E Meet really stands out as this special opportunity,” said distance runner Luke Rostan ’27. “It’s one of the only opportunities … for us to all be together, to all compete and to do it at home, in front of the home crowd, in front of our friends, and with great competition,” he said.

The teams achieved strong results at the meet. “We [had] an enormous number of personal bests,” Rostan said. “Just very gritty and competitive around the way.” 

Emil Nelson ’28, Malcolm Oakes ’28 and Rick Yanashita ’25 finished the 5k with times of 14:32.51, 14:32.64, and 14:35.77, respectively. For Nelson and Yanashita, these times were both personal bests.

The three leaned on each other for motivation throughout the race. “After a couple laps, I worked my way up to Malcolm and Rick, and then from there, we kind of just stayed as a group, the three of us,” Nelson said. “It was also really nice … having the three of us right there together,” he noted. 

“[In] the last 200 it was Malcolm, and then me, and then Rick, and I passed Malcolm and closed pretty hard.” Nelson said.

Eli Welch ’28, Rex Bedwick ’28, and Jackson McFerron ’28 also set personal records in the 5k with times of 14:50.39, 15:45.55, and 16:00.94, respectively. For the women’s distance team, Kate Tuttle ’28 earned a personal best in the 1500m, finishing fourth overall with a time of 4:32.67. Additional personal bests included Jordan Liss-Riordan ’27 and Charlene Peng ’26 in the 1500m, Nora Johnson ’25 in the 5000m, and Fiona Picone ’26 and Julia Brennan ’27 in the 10,000m.

For a number of Ephs, F.I.R.E was a chance to make up for ground lost during the indoor season.

Nelson said that his distance race was especially satisfying following a disappointing indoor season. “I was getting sick a lot and just not having great races,” he said. “So going into outdoor, I really knew I wanted to work hard and have some good performances.” 

Chris Xue ’28, a long jumper, scored an impressive 6.86 meters despite being injured for much of the season, qualifying him for another chance to make nationals on May 14. “[I had been] battling a long injury, and I thought my season was going to be over, but now I have another shot at competing, which I’m really happy about,” Xue said. 

Other jumpers also performed well, each achieving personal bests. Will Murray ’25 won the long jump with a jump of 7.14 meters. Kelsey Tarby ’27 came second in the long jump with a personal best of 5.74m and Mireya King ’28 placed third in triple jump with a personal best of 11.33 meters.

In the sprints, several Ephs also earned standout performances. Bella King-Harvey ’27 won the 400m with a time of 55.40 seconds, while Rachel Arthur ’25 took second place in the 200m with a time of 24.63 seconds. Co-captain Oscar Newman ’25 finished second in the men’s 200m with a time of 21.54 seconds and Yanni Kakouris ’27 achieved a personal best of 22.07 seconds, coming in eighth. 

Kakouris looked ecstatic after setting this personal best, according to Devesh Khamitkar ’28, a sprinter and jumper. “That made him, a really reserved guy for the most part, get up and yell. It was really awesome,” Khamitkar said.

Kakouris also set his collegiate personal best in the 100m with a time of 11.09 seconds.

In the heptathlon, there was also plenty of success to go around. Livi Mazerolle ’26 won the heptathlon with a season-best of 4600 points, and Vivian Koles ’27 earned fifth place with a personal best of 3454 points. “I had a great day. I PR’d in six out of seven of my events and added around 200 points onto my overall score,” Koles said.

The women’s team found success in pole vault as well, with Ellie Fitzgerald ’26 coming in second, clearing 3.87 meters, and all three vaulters setting personal bests.

All of these standout performances added to a sense of excitement that pervaded the entire meet. “When some people do well it feeds into more excitement. Watching a teammate do well, you get really hyped up…and then you put that into your next event,” Jordan Davis ’28, a decathlete, said.

The F.I.R.E meet is known as a “last chance meet,” meaning that it is one of the final opportunities for athletes to qualify for nationals, according to Rostan. 

The pressure to make the most of the meet led to nervousness for some of the competitors. “I think some of my other teammates definitely were feeling that pressure,” Nelson said.

Despite this, the team supported each other throughout the meet. “When you’re such a close knit team, you’re able to know the goals of your peers. And that doesn’t take the pressure off, but you can adjust accordingly to support each other in the best ways you can,” Davis said.

Because this was a home meet, fans also fueled the Ephs’ strong performances. “I had never had my friends who aren’t on the track team cheer me on from the sidelines, and I think that really helped my performance,” Koles said.

Members of the College community not only supported athletes during an important meet, but also took up the mantle of race-day pressure themselves. Indeed, within the F.I.R.E schedule was the intramural 4x400m mixed relay. “It was technically a part of the meet,” Rostan said. “We hooked it up to our timing system.”

These races meant a lot to the participants. “I’d heard some murmurs about the IM 4×4 back in the fall… so I kind of knew I wanted to get together with some friends and do it,” Quinn McDermott ’28, who ran in the 4x400m, said. While McDermott’s team narrowly missed gold, despite his 52-second relay split, he recounted the exciting atmosphere of the competition. “There was a big mass of people lined up along the fence on the home stretch … and a good contingent of cross country and track runners running around the infield.” 

These spectators added to the hype of the event. “There were like, 30 to 35, people yelling and screaming right around [the track] while you’re running,” McDermot said. “It was a great atmosphere.”

After the meet, the Ephs reflected on the the spirit and support of the community that defined it. “We ran a ‘shout-out circle’ where we spent 10 minutes noting all the ways in which everyone contributed to making it the day that it was,” Rostan said. “That went from people running insanely competitive times and running massive personal bests all the way to — off the track, watching every single race, and being as loud as they can.”

The Ephs will have another home meet this Wednesday and Thursday where the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Championships will take place.