Seven of NYU’s 73 track and field athletes are set to compete at Indoor Nationals on Friday and Saturday, after strong performances at the UAA Championships on March 1 and a last-chance qualifying meet last Saturday.
The athletes — graduate student Katherine Cochran, senior Janie Cooper, juniors Josephine Dziedzic and Liam Hagerty, sophomores Stella Kuttner and Huckleberry Oakes and freshman Theodore Udelson-Nee — will travel to Alabama for the NCAA Division III championships, marking a career high for head coach Tyler Deck Shipley’s time with the Violets.
“We had a few close misses, but I think this is one of the most complete teams that we’ve qualified for nationals,” Shipley told WSN. “We’re really excited about that.”
Though their respective last place and second-to-last place finishes in the UAA Championships left the women’s and men’s team disappointed, several Violets found individual success. Hagerty, Udelson-Nee and Oakes — qualifying runners who also earned NYU a program-high No. 4 finish in the NCAA Cross Country Championship — rounded out the top five of the men’s mile, finishing second, third and fifth respectively.
“I did what me and my coaches were expecting,” Hagerty said. “Last year, I was trying to qualify but I think that was more of a dream than a reality, whereas this season, it is achievable.”
The women’s 3,000m at the UAAs saw similar results for the Violets with Kuttner, Cochran and Cooper, placing second, third and fifth respectively. The four qualifiers, along with the rest of the women’s team’s distance runners, are fresh off of a fall cross country championship win, the first in program history.
The qualifying Violets secured their spots in Nationals in the last-chance qualifying meet at Tufts University. All of NYU’s distance runners placed in the top 10 of their respective events, with three taking first place. In the men’s mile, Oakes took the top spot in 4:11.03, while the men’s 5,000m final saw Udelson-Nee in first and Hagerty following in fourth.
“I want to keep carrying the momentum,” Hagerty said. “It’s not just one big step, but lots of small steps in between to get there.”
With so many Violets qualifying, some of whom fell just short of the cut last year, the teams are excited to compete. Kuttner, a long-distance runner who missed national qualification by less than a second in the mile last year, has qualified for both the mile and the 3,000m race.
“Thinking about where I was last year and where I am now, I’m super motivated,” Kuttner said. “In my mindset it’s not even really about winning. I really do want to win, but every time there’s a workout, and racing, I just want to push myself as hard as I can.”
Despite the harsh winter weather creating obstacles to training, the team has fought to redeem themselves after last year’s performance, where the four qualifiers failed to score team points. Now, with seven, the Violets aim to leave the competition with All-American titles and top team rankings.
“The people that we have going to the meet can finish in the top eight or even higher, and score some points at the national level,” Shipley said. “On the women’s side, I think the team could place in the top 10. On the men’s side, hopefully one of them can come away with an All-American performance and set the foundation for future years.”
Contact Sayako Ikeda at [email protected].