The Kenyon men and women’s track and field teams traveled to Wittenberg University to compete in their first meet of the year on Saturday in the unscored Tiger Opener.

In the women’s events, Paula Sorić ’25, named NCAC Women’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Week, led the way with two first place finishes. The only Kenyon competitor in the triple jump event, Sorić jumped a distance of 11.47 meters, beating the Kenyon record that she set last year by 0.01 meters. In the long jump, Sorić placed first again with a distance of 5.41 meters, more than 0.25 meters further than the second-place finisher. Erika Conant ’23 earned a seventh-place finish in the long jump with a jump of 4.87 meters and came 12th in the high jump with a jump of 1.39 meters. 

On the track, Sorić finished eighth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.64 seconds. Additionally, Grace Neuger ’24 placed seventh in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 10.08, with Conant not far behind her with a time of 10.56, good enough for 12th. In the 400-meter dash, Logan Vidal ’25 came in 12th, and Denna Medrano ’23 came in 15th, with times of 1:03.14 and 1:04.58, respectively. Finally, in the 800-meter, Sadie Wayne ’26 finished 12th with a time of 2:53.81. 

The men’s team competed in four events on Saturday and made finals in all of them. Tapiwa Gono Phiri ’25 led the Owls in the 60-meter and 200-meter races, finishing fourth in both. Gono Phiri, who holds Kenyon records in both events, earned a time of 7.04 seconds in the 60-meter and 22.83 seconds in the 200-meter. In the same event, Collin Witt ’24 finished in 18th with a time of 23.55, and Emmanuel Makelele ’25 came in 26th with a time of 23.76 seconds. In the 400-meter dash, Witt earned 12th place with a time of 52.94 seconds, a new personal best. Finally, in the long jump event, Ezekiel Kiwanuka ’26 came in 10th out of 20 jumpers with a distance of 6.09 meters. 

Kenyon’s next meet is the Wooster Quad on Jan. 14 at the College of Wooster.