While Emory University students left campus for spring break destinations, members of the men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Virginia Beach, Va., for the 2024 NCAA Division III indoor track and field championships from March 8 to 9. The men’s team ended the meet in 10th place out of 63 teams, which is the highest finish in program history, while the women’s team placed 24th.
Boon becomes Emory’s 1st All-America pentathlete
On the first day of competition for the women’s team, graduate student Brigid Hanley, senior Lily Taylor, junior Dashiel Tao Harris and sophomore Madison Tiaffay placed ninth in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:43.04, and graduate student Nikki Boon finished second in the pentathlon. Boon became the first Emory athlete to earn an All-America honor for the event and her 3,763 point total across the five events set a new program record.
This comes after Boon also won a long jump title at the University Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships on Feb. 24 and earned the South Region Athlete of the Year honor for the indoor season. She said her mindset going into the final indoor meet of the season was to be confident and trust the hard work she put in over the entire year.
“I definitely wanted to place and I knew I could,” Boon said. “I just really had to be very solid across all my events and I think that’s what I did.”
Boon solidified second place in the pentathlon with her performance in the 800-meter dash, but she did not realize she made the podium until after the race.
“I had no clue what was going on at that point because I didn’t know I placed second, but everybody’s reaction was just so excited and elated that I was super happy too,” Boon said. “It was a really great moment.”
Before her time at Emory, Boon competed as a Division I undergraduate student at Coastal Carolina University (S.C.). She finished fourth in the pentathlon at the 2023 Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships and said she had a great first season competing for Emory.
“I absolutely loved it,” Boon said. “It was one of the first indoor seasons where I was healthy and it’s so great to be able to compete with your team.”
The first day also saw senior Libby Ranocha earn ninth place in the 800-meter race with a time of 2:11.38, while junior Audrey Johnson finished 17th in the 200-meter run, logging a time of 25.17. On the second day of the championship, Hanley placed ninth in the 3000-meter run with a time of 9:41.64. Junior Caroline Hansen finished 20th in the triple jump, posting a distance of 11.16 meters. The women’s team ended the meet in 24th place out of 63 teams.
Brandstadter, men’s distance relay team finish on podium
Sophomore Henry Brandstadter earned the first All-America honor for the men’s team this indoor season on the opening day of the meet, placing second in the long jump with a distance of 7.34 meters. This is the highest a long jumper has placed in the men’s program’s history. Brandstadter placed eighth in the long jump at last year’s national indoor championships and he said he was happy with the “upward trend” in results.
Brandstadter said he began competing in the long jump during his freshman year of high school, but he did not consider it to be one of his main events until his senior year.
“I knew I was decent at the long jump, but I didn’t expect to have such growth in that area and to make it nationally,” Brandstadter said.
The Eagles finished off the first day with a strong performance in the distance medley relay, as seniors Spencer Watry and Dawit Dean, junior Marcus Cheema and freshman Graham Greene captured third place and broke the school record with a time of 9:50.10.
Watry, who was on the medley relay team that broke Emory’s record in 2022 and 2023, said that breaking it for the third year in a row was evidence of the team’s growth.
“Yes, it’s cool to get a school record,” Watry said. “But more than that, it’s just a testament to how much overall, as a team, we’ve improved and how much deeper we’ve gotten year after year.”
The relay team also had a chip on their shoulder as they had the slowest qualifying time going into the race. Watry said that the relay was a chance to prove themselves without any extra expectations.
“Going in as the underdog, it’s a fun spot to be in,” Watry said. “We still want to do well, but you have that extra motivation of, ‘No one expects us to do well,’ and so we want to prove the stat sheet wrong.”
Brandstadter said the relay team’s performance represented their effort throughout the race.
“They were seeded last and they came in third, which is … a crazy jump,” Brandstadter said. “It doesn’t matter where you are seeded. It just shows if you bring your best for the meet, you can really change the tide.”
Senior Kenya Sei also placed 17th in the weight throw as the team finished 10th out of 63 schools, the best indoor NCAA team finish in Emory history.
Brandstadter said that after a successful indoor season for the team, he is looking forward to the upcoming outdoor meets.
“Our full strength comes out for outdoors, so we’ll see a lot more people qualifying and possibly placing,” Brandstadter said. “I think we’re going to do great outdoors.”
Managing Editor Jenna Daly (25B) is a member of the women’s track and field team and had no role in writing or editing this article.
