It was a weekend of Quaker domination.
Although Princeton ultimately claimed triple crowns for both its men’s and women’s track and field teams and the combined results, the Quakers put up impressive performances at the Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Rising senior thrower Ella Neskora was the first Quaker to put points on the board with a fourth-place finish in the hammer throw. Neskora never threw below 55 meters across her six attempts. The Jacksonville, Fla., native reset her personal record on her first and second throw, improving the fourth-best mark in program history.
Throwers stayed consistent throughout the competition. 2026 College graduate Angeludi Asaah claimed her first Ivy League discus title in a two-meter personal record, shattering the program record set by 2021 College graduate and 2024 Olympian Ashley Anumba.
Asaah was an underdog entering the competition, claiming fifth place in the discus at last year’s Outdoor Heps. She wasn’t deterred by a foul on her first throw, catapulting to second place with a 54.98-meter lob on her second attempt. Asaah carried that momentum into her third attempt, launching the disc an astonishing 59.50 meters, just one centimeter shy of the meet record.
Even though she fouled on the rest of her attempts, Asaah proved to be heads and shoulders above the rest of the competition. She was joined on the podium by rising sophomore thrower Jessica Oji, who claimed a bronze medal in the discus with a 55.12-meter toss on her final attempt — a new personal record by over seven meters.
Oji shone in her signature event, the shot put, ultimately throwing 17.91 meters on her best attempt. She stayed consistent as she trounced the competition, never shooting below 17 meters. Her record-breaking streak continued as well, as Oji broke the previous meet record set by 2023 Harvard graduate Sarah Omoregie on her first lob. In a role reversal from the discus, Asaah claimed the bronze medal while Oji took the title.
Rising senior javelin specialist Madison Knier — who is also a staffer for The Daily Pennsylvanian — also earned a spot on the podium, cruising to third place with a 45.38-meter toss on her fourth attempt. 2026 College graduate Elliott Bush finished right behind Knier, claiming fourth place with a 45.18-meter throw on her fifth attempt.
Rising senior thrower Kai Deines also impressed, earning a bronze medal in the discus after a 54.84-meter lob on his final attempt, while 2026 College graduate Atticus Soehren claimed a silver medal in the javelin.
More field specialists showed out for the Red and Blue on the infield. Rising senior triple jumper Adannia Agbo reset the longest-standing women’s outdoor program record with a 13.20-meter hop, skip, and jump. Agbo had only one successful thirteen-meter attempt before Heps, when she hopped, skipped, and jumped 13.05 meters at the indoor season opener. She ultimately finished third behind Princeton duo Alexandra Kelly and Georgina Scoot, who are both All-American jumpers.
Rising sophomore jumper Matthew Kathiravelu put points on the board in new personal-best finishes in both the triple jump and the high jump. Despite claiming the Ivy League title in the indoor triple jump earlier this year, Kathiravelu was not among the favorites outdoors, largely because he spent most of the regular season contesting the high jump.
Kathiravelu improved his outdoor personal record by nearly a foot en route to the silver medal in the triple jump. His final hop, skip, and jump was his best attempt on the day — a 15.50-meter leap into a headwind. The Peterborough, Ontario, native also scored a new personal best in the high jump, moving up to the 1.98-meter bar for fifth place in the conference.
2026 Wharton graduate Kampton Kam earned a silver medal in the high jump behind indoor national champion Tito Alofe of Harvard. The competition was tight between the All-Americans, who traded attempts as the bars got higher and higher. A successful attempt on Alofe’s first jump at the 2.18-meter bar turned the tide in his favor as Kam failed to pass his competitor. Despite being a three-time Ivy League champion indoors, Kam has never claimed an outdoor title, instead finishing with a silver medal behind Alofe three years in a row.
Rising senior high jumper Samantha Strydesky and rising junior high jumper Zofia Limbert also earned podium finishes. Strydesky moved up to No. 3 in the program record books with a personal record that earned her the silver medal, while Limbert claimed the bronze medal after crossing the 1.76-meter bar.
Rising sophomore multis/jumps specialist Yuliya Maslouskaya claimed her second Ivy League title with a program record finish in the heptathlon. Maslouskaya improved the record by over one hundred points in her quest for the crown. Similar to Indoor Heps, Maslouskaya also notched personal best finishes in four of the seven events — the javelin throw, the long jump, the 200-meter dash, and the 100-meter hurdles.
2026 College graduate Jake Rose claimed his fourth consecutive Ivy League title in the multis and his second consecutive decathlon conference title. Rose was in the top five for all 10 events and won five of them, ultimately finishing with 7124 points. He also scored new personal records in the 1,500-meter run and the 400-meter run.
The Quakers’ relay pools dominated on the oval, claiming podium finishes in all five relays they contested. The women’s 4x400-meter relay squad put up one of the most impressive performances of the meet, resetting the previous meet record by two seconds in a season-best 3:32.24.
The women’s 4x800-meter relay also impressed. A strong third leg by rising sophomore Margaret McCabe built the gap between Red and Blue and the rest of the field, helping the Quakers claim first place by nearly four seconds.
Although the men’s 4x400-meter relay squad was seeded second behind Princeton by only two-hundredths of a second, it ultimately finished in second place by three seconds due to lineup changes. Rising senior sprinter/hurdler Ryan Matulonis was notably absent from the pack, not appearing in a Heps relay for the first time in his collegiate career.
Before the relays on May 17 Matulonis claimed his third consecutive 400-meter hurdles Ivy League title. Fellow Quaker and rising senior hurdler Alex Sadikov, made his season debut in the event, claiming the bronze medal, while rising senior multis specialist Amelia Kristen claimed the silver on the women’s side.
Rising sophomore sprinter/hurdler Sofia Swindell showed out in the short hurdles. The 100-meter hurdles seemed like anyone’s race to win, especially since the defending champion, rising junior hurdler Chikaodinaka Akazi, was absent from the competition.
Swindell won her preliminary heat to automatically qualify for the finals in a new personal-best 13.58-second performance. The cards were seemingly stacked against her, though, since Harvard’s Abby Dennis ran faster during the preliminaries under a stronger headwind.
Swindell proved herself during the finals, lowering her new personal best by nearly two-tenths of a second, finishing in 13.39 seconds to claim the crown. The Princeton, N.J., native also broke Akazi’s program record set at last year’s Heps by three-hundredths of a second.
Rising sophomore distance runner Joseph “Tiago” Socarras made his season debut at Heps in the 800-meter run. It was an important race for Socarras, who aims to return to the national stage after finishing fourth in the 800 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
After finishing second in the preliminary rounds, Socarras turned up the heat during the finals. He kept with Dartmouth’s J’Voughnn Blake and fellow rising sophomore distance runner Vinay Raman until the final straightaway, where he pulled away with the lead into the finish line. The Miami native negative split his second lap by over a second, and stopped the clock in 1:47 flat — an outdoor personal record good for No. 3 in program history.
After missing last year’s Outdoor Heps, 2026 College graduate Lily Murphy was ready to reclaim her title. Murphy first captured a Heps title in 2024 when she beat out 2024 Engineering graduate Maeve Stiles in the 10-kilometer run. Murphy made her return to the 10k in a stacked field at the Raleigh Relays in late March, finishing 10th overall in a field of All-Americans and seasoned professionals.
Murphy put on a tactical masterclass at Heps, staying near the top of the pack while not overexerting herself by going out too hard. She comfortably took over the lead from Dartmouth’s Mia Compton-Engle at the five-kilometer mark, and she didn't let up until the finish line, recapturing the title.
Despite the triumphs, Heps wasn’t without its heartbreaks.
On Saturday, May 16, rising senior sprinter Nayyir Newash-Campbell failed to qualify for the 400-meter run finals for the first time in his career. Newash-Campbell was the favorite to take the title coming off back-to-back victories at last year’s Outdoor Heps and this year’s Indoor Heps.
This time, the stakes were higher. Entering the final heat of the preliminary rounds, the qualifying bubble was nearly a second faster than it had been a year prior. Even though Newash-Campbell completed a lap in 46.90 seconds — almost a second faster than his second-place finish during the preliminary rounds last year — he was 0.15 seconds too slow to make the final cut.
2026 College graduate Shane Gardner felt the heartbreak, too. Although Gardner didn’t compete at last year’s Heps due to injury, he claimed the Ivy League 110-meter hurdle title in 2024. This year, the Sugar Land, Texas, native was seeded third entering the finals after stopping the clock at 13.89 seconds in the preliminary round.
Disaster struck in the final rounds. Even though the wind was in the hurdler’s favor, Gardner seemingly clipped his leg on the first hurdle, jumping up in pain while the rest of the hurdlers raced to the finish line.
Although most of the team ended their season at Heps, 25 Quakers, including Newash-Campbell and Gardner, were able to qualify for NCAA East Regionals next week — the preliminary round for the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships in June.
