The College’s 2026 Intramural (IM) track and field meet concluded on Friday with the mixed 4x400m relay which took place during the Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza (F.I.R.E.) Meet at Lee Track.
Now in its third year, the IM track and field meet is one of roughly six intramural sports which Assistant Director of Club Sports and Intramurals Kris Hoey oversees each year. Hoey hopes these events foster a welcoming environment for students to compete. “The number one goal is always to provide a place to have fun based on nothing else but the love of competition and being with friends,” she wrote in an email to the Record. “My favorite part of IMs is providing a structure for creativity, fun, fitness, and community.”
The meet featured 11 teams and nearly 80 competitors, including teams that had competed in every IM event this year and others composed of varsity athletes.
Other IM teams, such as Money, Fame, and Values (MFV), came together specifically to participate in this competition. MFV even prepared in the dark at Lee Track leading up to the meet. “We were just practicing relaying, ran a couple of 400s around the track, and [did] a lot of warm-ups,” MFV’s Saikou Barry ’29 said.
Competition began on May 3, with 17 athletes across nine teams competing in the long jump. Fishoutawater’s Clare McDermott ’28 secured first place in the women’s competition with a mark of 15’ 5” on her opening attempt. Freshman 15’s Max Darling ’29 took the men’s title on his first attempt as well, with a 17’ 10.5” jump.
Darling, who had competed in long jump on his high school track team, said he appreciated the low-stakes environment. “It’s definitely different from high school, because nothing’s really on the line,” he said. “It’s all just for fun, and that’s what I love most.”
The meet resumed on the evening of Tuesday, May 5, with the shot put. Mango Juice’s Luke Mangini ’28 led the field with a throw of 41’ 6” in his third attempt, while Perry People’s Tatum Leuenberger ’27 recorded the top women’s mark with a throw of 33’ 5” on her second attempt.
As the sun set on Tuesday, the inaugural Devil Takes the Hindmost event began. Dressed in dark purple robes and armed with fake pickaxes, the “devils” — IM volunteers — prowled the track, eliminating the last-place runner each lap before eliminating more runners per lap as the four-lap race progressed.
The men’s heat quickly turned physical, as the athletes fought for the innermost lane of the track. “When everybody lined up on the first lap, everybody got out and sprinted and boosted towards the first lane,” Barry said. “Everybody started throwing elbows.”
Perry People’s Maddie Semet ’26 was the last woman standing with a time of 5:43, while Mango Juice’s Whitman Horton ’28 outlasted the rest of the men’s field with a time of 5:07. Based on the average of each team’s finishing positions, Perry People captured the event title, while Mango Juice placed second.
Heading into Friday’s finale, Perry People led the standings, closely followed by Mango Juice and Fishoutawater, which were tied in second. Following bouts of rain earlier that afternoon, the skies cleared as the runners stepped onto the track for the mixed 4x400m relay. Two-time defending champion KM Asphalt was absent this year, with two of their members abroad, meaning that the title was up for grabs.
After multiple false starts, the relay began with Horton giving Mango Juice an early lead. By the last exchange, Harrison Williams ’26 had extended Mango Juice’s lead to nearly five seconds over Perry People.
But on the anchor leg, Perry People’s Mackenzie Leach ’27 steadily closed the gap on Mango Juice’s Nora Sherman ’29 as the two motored down the back stretch and into the final straight, stride for stride. “We had a big lead, so it would be really embarrassing if I lost it,” Sherman said. “I couldn’t tell she was behind me, but people on the sidelines kept saying that she was there.”
In a dramatic finish, Leach fell to the ground during a last surge in the final ten meters and collided with Sherman, who also fell but made it across the line first to secure the win for Mango Juice. Leach then crawled across the finish line to place second, just milliseconds ahead of Insane Bolt’s Abby Furlanetto ’28. Fishoutawater and Nordies followed within 0.6 seconds of each other, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.
The relay rivalry carried extra weight for two of the teams: Mango Juice and Fishoutawater, which were both composed entirely of varsity swimmers. “We’re glad that we beat the other swim team,” Sherman said. “That was the rivalry: Fishoutawater versus Mango Juice.”
Teams also competed for creativity points through their team uniforms. Wang and Co earned five points for their matching leopard-print tops and metallic silver shorts, while Fishoutawater received three points for wearing swimsuits over their clothes, topped with swim caps and goggles.
With the results from the relay, Perry People held on to win the meet with 34 points, while Mango Juice finished a close second with 32 points, and Fishoutawater rounded out the podium with 30 points.
Building off the addition of Devil Takes the Hindmost this year, Hoey hopes to expand the meet’s reach among the College community. “[I’m] always looking to provide new opportunities for people to come out and try IMs for the first time,” she wrote. “I am thinking next year, IM Steeplechase? Hobby Horse Race?”
For many competitors, the final IM event’s appeal came down to something simpler: fun. “The atmosphere is very fun with all your friends just having a good time,” Darling said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re good at the events, we just love being silly and doing fun things. I definitely would love to keep doing this next year and the years after that.”
