On Friday, the track and field teams competed in the Kenyon Last Chance meet, their first home meet of the season. The College of Wooster was the only other team present at the unscored meet.

For the women’s team, plenty of Owls earned season-best and career-best results throughout the meet. In the one-mile event, two runners secured career-best finishes. Ellianne Retzlaff ’25 came in first with a time of 5:55.82, followed shortly by Isabel Prosnitz ’26, who finished second with a time of 6:02.06. In the 800-meter race, Anna Brown ’26 came in first with a time of 2:24.79, a season best for the entire team. Denna Medrano ’23 finished right behind Brown with a time of 2:36.50, a personal season-best for her. 

On the field, Eras Yager ’23 finished in fourth place and set a career record in the weight throw with a distance of 11.49 meters, surpassing her previous record set earlier this January. In the same event, Ngone Fall ’23 earned a fifth-place finish with a distance of 11.34 meters, and Jolien Kusi ’25 finished in sixth with a distance of 10.94 meters, a career best.

The men’s team also racked up a number of podium finishes, as the home meet gave a valuable opportunity for first-years to shine. On the field, Ezekiel Kiwanuka ’26 came in first in the long jump event with a distance of 6.11 meters, a season best, followed by Josh Greville ’26 who came in second with a distance of 5.90 meters. Samuel Eluemunoh ’26 came in second in the shot put with a season-best distance of 12.67 meters, while Max Pollio ’25 earned a third-place finish with a distance of 11.98 meters in the weight throw.

In the 800-meter run, Dylan Sibbitt ’26 earned another Kenyon victory with a season-best time of 2:03.05. William Wilson ’25 was right behind him with a time of 2:06.18. And as always, the Kenyon sprinters performed extremely well. Tapiwa Gono Phiri ’25, Julius Thompson ’26 and Emmanuel Makelele ’25 swept the top three places in the 60-meter dash — they clocked in at 7.07 seconds, 7.19 seconds and 7.28 seconds, respectively. Collin Witt ’24 also came in second in the 400-meter event with a time of 53.07 seconds. 

Two days later, Erika Conant ’23 traveled to Denison University to compete in the NCAC pentathlon event, in which she came in sixth place. Her best finish was in the long jump event, where she finished first with a distance of 4.78 meters. She also earned a personal-best time of 2:47.03 in the 800-meter event. Conant’s sixth place finish earned three points for Kenyon, which will be carried over for next week’s NCAC Championship. 

Next, the Owls will send qualifiers to the NCAC Championship at DePauw University, which is being held on Friday and Saturday.