PRINCETON, N.J. – The Yale men's track and field team concluded competition earlier at the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Championships Sunday, placing eighth with 34 points. Princeton won the team title with 182 points. Highlighting the day for the Bulldogs were the runner-up 4x100m relay team of Ekrem Ayhan, Kyle Macauley, Juma Sei and Vincent Vaughns, as well as the runner-up effort by Sei in the 400m dash.

Sei was productive for the Bulldogs on the track today, as mentioned above in being a part of the runner-up 4x100m relay team and earning an individual runner-up in the 400m dash with a time of 47.81. Ayhan also competed in the 400m dash, placing fourth with a time of 48.36, the best Ivy Heps finish of his career. Ayhan later scored in the 200m dash, placing fifth with a strong effort of 21.52. Both Ayhan and Sei returned for the 4x400m relay, in which they placed third alongside Macauley and Connor Hill. Clearly, Ayhan and Sei had successful days and earned the Bulldogs the bulk of their points – it will be exciting to see how far these young athletes progress from here.

Earlier on the track, Allen Siegler charged to finish fifth in the finals of the 1500m run in what was a very physical and gritty race. His final lap was the second-fastest of the field, and he looked to be in peak shape today. Nick Dahl ran arguably the toughest race of anyone in the 1500m run, and crossed the line in 12th place.

In their first Ivy Heps Outdoors, Robert Miranda and Harrison Smith had very strong races in the 3,000m steeplechase. Not only was Miranda the top First-Year, placing seventh, but he was ahead of the next First-Year by just under 15 seconds. Smith was close behind in 13th, running a tough race.

In the longer 5,000m run, Brendan Murray had one of the best races of his career, just missing out on the podium with a new personal best of 14:29.70 en route to an eighth-place finish. He was the top First-Year across the line by more than 15 seconds. Jonathan Lomogda finished just behind Murray in 12th, sealing a solid effort from the Bulldogs in the distance events.

CJ McCord soared above 2.08m (6' 9.75") in the high jump to earn fourth-place and a handful of points for the Bulldogs in his final Ivy Heps Championships. Spencer O'Neill also competed in the high jump, placing 11th with a height of 1.94m (6' 4.25"). Jimmy Shih was also competing in his final Ivy Heps Championships and placed 11th in the triple jump, capping a successful career for the Bulldogs. Andrew Rochon, after competing in the hammer throw Saturday, returned for the shot put today throwing a mark of 14.50m (47' 7") and placing 11th.

While there were fewer points on the board than the Bulldogs wanted to score, there were still many key takeaways from this weekend's Heptagonal Championships. With a lot of young athletes looking strong across each discipline, the Bulldogs should be in good hands in the coming years.

Final results from this weekend's championships can be viewed here.

Report by Zachary Capello '19, Yale Sports Publicity