Track & Field (4-0) traveled with about a third of the full team to the Black Bear Invitational over the weekend. The meet was held at Coe Brown Academy.
Caitlin Ly ’27 described how Isabel Luo ’25 stood out at Saturday’s meet. Luo not only surpassed her record in practice the week before but pushed it even further at the meet.
“One individual that really stood out to me was Isabel. She’s an Upper, and this season, her main goal for long jump must have been to get 16 feet. And before the meet on Saturday, her PR was 15 feet and eight inches. And at the meet, she PR’d by a whole foot which is really impressive, because it was hot at the meet, and she also got 16 foot eight [inches]on her third attempt.” said Ly.
Gracie Aziabor ’26 described how Emma Hagstrom ’25 and Tara Menon ’26 set the bar for the meet during the first race and energized the team. They started the day off with confidence and led with intensity.
Aziabor said, “One individual that stood out, Emma Hagstrom, an Upper, and Tara Menon, I think both of them did a really good job. Their race was like the very first race of the day, really early in the morning. It was super hot outside, but with all those things considered, they still did a really good job. [They] ran a strong, powerful race and it was just great energy to set off the team.”
Jenna Robertson-Palmer ’27 described the atmosphere of the event as cheerful with lots of support for one another.
“The team is always so positive and cheers each other on. I feel like it was a really fun meet and competitive competition that we were all very positive,” said Robertson Palmer.
Ly mentioned how the Black Bear Invitational served as preparation for Interschols — Track & Field’s largest meet, which will be held mid-May at Deerfield this year.
“This was a meet with a [third] of the team, so that meant pre-meet for us was a lot smaller. Our pre-meet consists of block starts, excels, and anything for the tech events. I think our main goal for this meet was just to prepare for Interschols, which is later in May… Interschols is one of our bigger meets and the Black Bear meet would be the same environment as Interschols, so that was something that we were keeping in mind,” Ly said.
As the team is gearing up for its last few meets of the season, Aziabor described how the team has been working heavily on its technique and striving for all athletes to stay cool and collected throughout the meet.
Aziabor said, “We’re getting to a point in the season where you can kind of shake off the nerves of just getting back from the track and now you’re trying to refine your events and your technique down as we’re getting close to the end of the season. Alot of the athletes just focused on kind of getting the kinks out of their races or their events and focusing more on the little things and I think it translated really well. We saw a lot of really good PR’s and showings from a bunch of athletes.”
On Saturday, a select group of Track & Field athletes will travel to Northfield Mount Hermon.
