PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Brandeis University track and field teams had 10 scoring performances and one school record today on the first day of action at the 2024 University Athletic Association championships at Carnegie Mellon University. The Judges were in sixth place in the team standings on both sides, with the women scoring 14 points and the men totaling 7 points.

SCHOOL RECORD

• One of the top performances of the day for the Judges came from senior Alya Campbell (Eastchaster, N.Y./Eastchester) in the 100-meter hurdles. Her time of 14.85 seconds during the preliminaries marked the first time in school history the event was run under 15 seconds. She lowered her own school mark by 0.16 seconds and earned the fifth spot in tomorrow's finals.

SCORING PERFORMANCES - WOMEN

• With six of the 21 events scored on both sides, the Judges scored points in eight of them.
• The highest-scoring event of the day for the Judges was the women's pole vault. Junior Smiley Huynh (Bronx, N.Y./Bronx H.S. of Science) and sophomore Alisha Anderson (Denver, Colo./Ralston Valley) each tied with a CMU vaulter for fifth place with a height of 3.31 meters (10 feet, 10 ¼ inches), earning three points each
• Huynh also contributed to the Judges' scoring in the long jump. She placed seventh in the event with a distance of 5.24 meters (17 feet, 2 ¼ inches), edging teammate Shaniece Nugent (Hartford, Conn./Lawrence Acad.), who finished eighth by three centimeters with a PR distance of 5.21 meters (17 feet, 2 ¼ inches). Huynh's best jump came on her second attempt, while Nugent's PR came on her third.
• Brandeis's final field event scoring on the day came from sophomore Emma Liu (Taipei, Taiwan/Phillips Exeter (N.H.) in the hammer throw, where her distance of 41.53 meters (136 feet, 3 inches) came in eighth, using her final throw to secure the spot among the scorers. It was also a PR by almost two full meters (seven feet).
• The Judges scored in one individual running event on the day, the 3,000-meter steeplechase, where sophomore Ella Warkentine (Malvern, Pa./Conestoga) came in seventh with a time of 11:52.97.
• In the 4x800-meter relay, the quartet of junior Kayla DiBenedetto (Andover, Mass./Andover), first-years Sadie Harrow (Bangor, Maine/Bangor) and Natalie Liapis (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) and senior Lizzie Reynolds (Winchester, Mass./Winchester) placed seventh in 9:58.99.

SCORING PERFORMANCES – MEN

• The men's team scored in three events. In the field, junior Cam Peirce (Kittery, Maine/Portsmouth Christian Acad.) took sixth in the shot put with a heave of 13.48 meters (45 feet, 5 inches), with his best throw coming on his second effort. Peirce PRed for the second week in a row, increasing his career-best by 0.14 meters (19 ¼ inches).
• On the track, junior Lucas Dia (Montclair, N.J./Montclair) took seventh place in the steeplechase with a time of 9:33.50. He lowered his career-best by nearly four full minutes.
• The men were also seventh in the 4x800-meter relay with the squad of sophomore Adam Rieden (Littleton, Mass./Littleton), junior Spencer Lee (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck South), first-year Daniel Willis (Needham, Mass./Needham) and senior Samuel Kim (La Jolla, Calif./Phillips Exeter (N.H.) running 8:11.24.

TOMORROW'S FINALS QUALIFIERS

• In addition to Campbell, four other Judges qualified for tomorrow's finals in today's prelims.
• Brandeis's top seed in tomorrow's finals will be senior Olivia Zarzycki (Belmont, Mass./Belmont), who placed third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.94, just seven-hundredths of a second behind second place. It's her second-straight meet with a PR in the event. Zarzycki had never run under 1:05 before, taking a full second off her PR.
• Junior Hannah Bohbot-Dridi (Mountain View, Calif./Los Altos) is the sixth seed in the 400-meter dash with a prelim time of 58.48 seconds, going under 59 seconds for the first time in her career in her first solo 400 of the season.
• The men had two runners qualify for tomorrow's finals as well, with senior Ori Slotky (Closter, N.J./Northern Valley Regional) capturing the eighth seed in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 59.06 seconds, while sophomore TJ Carleo (Newburyport, Mass./Newburyport) was eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.15. Carleo is the defending UAA champion in the 800.

UP NEXT

• The 10,000-meter run will be contested later tonight, with the rest of the meet continuing from Carnegie Mellon starting at 9 AM with the women's javelin throw.