CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The UMass Dartmouth women's indoor track and field team was back in action on Saturday, competing at the 2026 Gordon Kelly Invitational at MIT. The meet, which was a non-scoring event, saw a massive field of teams from across all three divisions.
In the track events, the Corsairs saw rookie
Eshaya Lauder paced the way in the 60-meter dash, recording a time of 8.41 to finish 35th overall. Classmate
Kiariana Williams also notched a time of 8.41 to take the 36th spot in the event. The 200-meter dash saw senior
Isabella Taccogna post 43rd overall with a mark of 29.10, while Williams paced to a 45th place finish with a mark of 29.18.
Next up in the 400-meter dash, senior
Grace Russell notched a time of 1:05.89 to finish 16th overall, while the packed 800-meter run field was led by senior
Tori Schweitzer, who finished 11th overall in 2:28.63 - which marked a personal record. Sophomore
Sara Lopez ran to 12th in 2:31.65, while grad student
Julia Latura took 14th overall with a time of 2:34.41. Rookie
Elena Aponte was 20th on the afternoon with a time of 2:39.66.
In the Mile event, sophomore
Ashlyn Byrnes posted a time of 5:49.42 for 35th, while in the 3,000-meter run, sophomore
Alexia Gonsalves was 27th with a personal record time of 12:02.97. It was a packed but successful field in the 5,000-meter run, led by junior
Sarah Lynch who claimed victory with a personal record time of 18:54.39. Classmate
Sophie Owen took third overall with a personal record time of 19:04.41, while grad student
Emily Philbrook was fourth in 19:35.36. Rookie
Alexah Pedder ran to seventh on the day with a mark of 20:19.57, followed by junior
Serena Carnes in eighth with a mark of 20:36.88. Sophomore
Lylah Thibeault was ninth in 21:16.44, while rookie Raeleight Levesque and junior Live DeSimone were 10th (21:21.60) and 11th (21:26.74), respectively.
Rookie
Adama Bangura ran to 20th overall in the 60-meter high hurdles with a time of 10.36, while fellow rookies
Laylaa Plaisir and
Elizabeth Fagundes were 43rd (11.89) and 46th (12.67), respectively.
The field events saw rookie
Grace Hawranik place 19th overall in the pole vault with a mark of 2.65 meters (8' 8.25"), while Lauder was 15th overall in the long jump with a jump of 4.71 meters (15' 5.5"). Taccogna returned to action in the triple jump, posting 11th with a distance of 9.25 meters (30' 4.25"), while in the shot put, rookie
Kearston Nelson reigned supreme once again. She finished ninth overall with a throw of 11.17 meters (36' 7.75") - which was also a New England DIII Provisional Qualifying mark. Sophomore
Olivia Seutter posted 26th in the event with a throw of 10.02 meters (32' 10.5"), while rookie
Addy Keller was 28th with a throw of 9.79 meters (32' 1.5").
Junior
Emily Hesketh led the way in the weight throw, posting a mark of 14.15 meters (46' 5.25") to post sixth overall with a New England D3 Provisional qualifying mark. Seutter was 31st with a throw of 11.42 meters (37' 5.75"), while sophomore
Abby O'Leary was 32nd with a mark of 10.86 meters (35' 7.75").
UMass Dartmouth returns to action next weekend, traveling back to the Boston area to compete at the John Thomas Terrier Classic, hosted by Boston University on January 31.
