Amherst Track and Field Competes Against Rivals Williams and Wesleyan

On Saturday, May 8, Amherst Track and Field faced Williams and Wesleyan on the Ephs’ home turf. With Williams and Wesleyan being known as Amherst’s biggest rivals, a victory in this meet promised bragging rights. 

The Mammoths had some major successes on the men’s and women’s side of both track and field events in this big showdown. For  women’s track, it all started with Sophia Wolmer ’23, who continued her success in the 1500-meter run, finishing first with a remarkable time of 4 minutes and 47.82 seconds. It didn’t stop there for Amherst, as captain Ella Rossa ’21 showed out once again in the hurdles event with a first-place finish. Rossa finished the event with a time of 14.59 seconds, earning a win for the second straight weekend. 

After finishing first last weekend in her season debut, Samantha Tichelaar ’22 had another strong race in the 100-meter dash. Tichelaar finished second with a time of 12.7 seconds, finishing only 0.28 seconds behind first place. Tichelaar also finished second in the 200-meter dash, with a time of 26.04 seconds. 

The team’s success in the women’s track events continued in the 4×400 relays. Amherst’s four runners, Kate Lingen ’22, Sophia Friedman ’21, Anna Madden ’22 and Juanita Jaramillo ’22 finished first with a time of 3 minutes and 53.42 seconds. 

In the 800-meter run, Rachel Ruderman ’21 finished second in her heat with a time of 2 minutes and 27.07 seconds, while Ally Deegan ’24 finished fourth in her heat with a time of 2 minutes and 17.23 seconds. 

On the men’s side, Amherst enjoyed similar success. In the 100-meter dash, Chris Gong ’23 had another successful weekend, finishing first with a time of 11.33 seconds, followed by Trevor Hall ’22, who finished second in 11.78 seconds. Meanwhile, Henry Buren ’22 continued his successful career with another first place finish this weekend. Buren finished with a time of 10.82 seconds in heat two, which gave Buren the best finish of the weekend. 

The strong finishes continued as the Mammoths found success in the men’s 5000-meter run. Spencer Davis ’22 finished first in the race with a time of 15 minutes and 41.41 seconds. In the men’s 400 hurdles, Ellis Phillips-Gallucci ’23 finished first, with a time of 55.57 seconds, while in the men’s 400meter dash, Kyland Smith ’21 finished second in heat one of the race, and seventh overall, with a time of 51.44 seconds. The men’s team also finished third in the 4×400 relays, with the team of Smith, Ian Dopp ’24, Ben Wadsworth ’22 and Koyla Markov-Riss ’24 finishing with a time of 3 minutes and 27.27 seconds. 

In the 1500-meter run, Dopp finished seventh and Bobby Innes-Gold ’22 finished 14th. 

In the women’s javelin throw, Trintje Nydam ’24 finished first followed by Rossa with a second-place finish. Success continued in the long jump event as Nydam and Rossa finished second and third, respectively.In the women’s discus throw, Bethany Martin ’24 finished second with a throw of 34.22 meters, and also finished third in the shot put with a throw of 10.22 meters. Carolina Andrade ’24 and Debra Thayer ’24 finished  fifth and sixth in the shot put, respectively, following closely behind Martin. Lauren Lamb ’21 saw success in the triple jump, as she finished first with a jump of 11.56 meters, giving Amherst another event win in the field section of the meet. 

In the hammer throw, Martin placed third with a throw of 37.26 meters.Mia Bawendi ’24 finished fourth in the pole vault with a score of 2.76 meters. 

The men’s team shared in the women’s success. Troy Colleran ’22 placed first in the javelin throw with a 46.15 meter result. Gabriel Dos Santos ’24 also finished third in the triple jump event, and Colleran finished fourth in the discus throw. 

Other notable results included a fourth place finish by Adrian Friedman ’24 in the long jump, wrapping up the field events for the men’s team. 

Overall, members of both teams had standout performances this weekend — 16 Amherst athletes finished within the top three. The team has a chance to build on this momentum as they head back to Williams next weekend to compete in a quad meet with Williams, Middlebury and Tufts on May 15.