TRACK & FIELD: McMahon ’22, Coy ’22 and Sei ’22 set new school records in weekend competition

The Bulldogs traveled to Boston for the IC4A Indoor Track & Field Championships, marking the end of the indoor season.


Contributing Reporter


Courtesy of Yale Athletics

Juma Sei ’22 won the 500 meter dash and set new Yale records along with teammates Libby McMahon ’22 and Addison Coy ’22.

The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) IC4A Indoor Track & Field Championships were held last Saturday and Sunday at Boston University’s Track & Tennis Center.

“The way we generally handle ECAC/IC4A is that we bring down the entire team, compete in the preliminary rounds and then leave on the same day,” said Sei, the men’s captain. “So everyone should treat their foreplay like it’s a final ending, like a one-and-a-half thing.”

She ran the 500-meter dash in Saturday’s preliminary round in 1:02.24 – very close to the record of 1:02.09. After feeling “dejected” at getting so close, he decided to stay one more day and compete in the finals. This was the same event he was skating the weekend before when he became the Ivy League champion.

Once again, the captain took home gold when he crossed the finish line in 1:01.83, breaking the school record.

“I just felt like it’s my last race of the indoor season, last indoor race, you know, while I’m wearing the Y, just shoot it and hold on for my life,” Sei said. “And it worked.”

The Oregon native was the lone Yale winner of the weekend.

Simon Jupp ’25 also ran the 500 meters on Saturday with a time of 1:03.89, finishing 10th all-time in Yale’s record book and becoming one of the fastest freshman years in Yale history.

Chris Colbert ’22 also had an eventful weekend, finishing third in the preliminary round of the 400m with a time of 47.98 seconds. He currently holds the fifth Yale record of all time.

“Running in my 47’s has been an athletic dream of mine since I started running eight years ago,” Colbert wrote. “This past weekend was the last 400 meter indoor race for me as a collegiate athlete and my goal was to get out of one last fast race before moving into the outdoor season.”

Another highlight was Austin Montini ’25 – who became the fastest freshman Bulldog ever to run the mile with a time of 4:05.97 – and finished 13th in the prelims. He came right after teammate Will Laird ’22, who finished 12th. James Randon ’17 still holds the meeting record for the mile in 2016 with a time of 3:58.85. Varun Oberai ’25 also ran a personal best of 4:09.51 in the mile.

Montini came back to referee the 4x800m relay with three other first years – Oberai, Calvin Katz ’25 and Elon Abergel ’25. They finished sixth in the preliminary round with a time of 7:37.49.

For women, the highlights of the weekend were McMahon and Coy’s record-breaking performances and Freiburg’s second-place finish in the final.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to end my indoor career at Yale than by breaking the 400-meter record,” McMahon wrote to the News.

McMahon ran the 400-meter dash and placed second in the preliminary round when she crossed the finish line in 54.29 seconds – and broke the school record with a time that could have meant gold in last weekend’s Ivy League Heps. The Connecticut native now holds the most Yales of all time with three under her belt according to Yale Athletics.

In the 500 meters, Coy followed McMahon’s lead and finished second in the preliminary round with a time of 1:12.96 seconds. This performance also set a new school record.

Maya Sharp ’22 ran the 500m in 1:15.27 and also qualified for the final.

McMahon, Coy and Sharp decided not to compete for the finals the next day, even though they all qualified.

Samantha Friborg ’23 placed third in the heats of the 800m with a time of 2:07.41, but came back the next day in the final, clocking an even faster time and finishing in 2:06.34 second place. The latter is now the new second all-time Yale record and also her new personal best.

“We’re hoping to carry the excitement and momentum we gained at last weekend’s ECAC meeting into our outdoor season,” McMahon said. “Most members of the team have not had an opportunity to run outdoors since 2019.”

The IC4A Indoor Track & Field Championships marked the end of the indoor track and field season for both the men’s and women’s teams. Now teams turn to their outdoor season and look forward to “moving up further,” Colbert wrote.

The blue and whites’ next meeting is the Raleigh relays, which mark the start of the outdoor season two weeks after spring break in Raleigh, North Carolina. Kayley DeLay ’22 will run the five kilometer at the NCAA Indoor National Championships in Birmingham, Alabama next Friday.

TOIA CONDE RODRIGUES DA CUNHA


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