ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Brandeis University track and field teams saw both of their competitors earn first-team All-America honors on Day 2 of the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Golisano Training Center in Rochester, New York.
 
On the women's side, first-year Sarai Sealy of New York, New York, competed in the day's first event, the triple jump.  She entered the event as the sixth seed, and improved by one spot to finish fifth.
 
On her very first jump of the championships, Sealy set a personal best of 12.29 meters (40 feet, four inches), taking the lead in the event after the first round. Jumping the second flight, her first-place positioning all but insured she would make the finals. After her flight completed, Sealy was ranked fourth overall. She was unable to improve her positioning over the final three attempts, as four other competitors outjumped her, including champion Elysse Cumberland of Tufts, who won on her final attempts, edging top-seeded Ebunoluwa Opata by one centimeter.
 
Sealy becomes Brandeis first woman scorer at the NCAA Division III Championships since 2022, while her fifth-place finish is the Judges' best since 2020. She is the third woman to win All-America honors in the indoor triple jump at Brandeis, joining Anat Benun '09, a three-time honoree in the event, and Elena Zhelezov '95, who won four indoor national titles in the triple jump, as well as four outdoors.

"Sarai showed composure and competitiveness at her first NCAA Championships," said head track and field coach Miles Ketchum. "It is a big stage, and managing the nerves and excitement is not easy. She made the finals, achieved a personal best and finished fifth in the nation, which is higher than she was seeded. I know she is proud of herself and hungry to get another chance to compete at the highest level."
 
For the men, junior Garret Rieden of Littleton, Massachusetts, entered the meet as the fourth seed. He qualified for the finals by winning his heat in the preliminaries in 1:53.67. Rieden had the seventh-fastest time in prelims, giving him a spot on the outside lanes in the waterfall start. Rieden ran from the eighth spot through the first 600 meters, but he made up ground in the final lap, running the third-fastest time on the lap to move up from eighth to sixth place with a time of 1:52.77, about half a second out of fifth and a quarter-of-a-second ahead of seventh.
 
With his sixth-place finish, Rieden becomes the Judges' first first-team All-American in men's indoor track and field since 2018. His sixth-place finish is the highest by a Brandeis man indoors since 2012, while he is the Judges' first indoor 800-meter All-American since Ryan Parker '06 in 2005.
"Garret had a successful championship in his first time qualifying for nationals, winning his preliminary heat and earning team points," said distance coach Michael Schmidt. "To be an All-American your first time out is a major accomplishment. His hard work and resilience has paid off in a big way. He already can't wait for outdoor season. It was a great weekend to be a Judge!"
 
In the team standings, Sealy's four points ranked the Brandeis women in a tie for 45^th place, while Rieden's three points were tied for 50^th among the men.