The Kenyon men’s and women’s track and field teams made their first scored outdoor appearance of the season this past weekend at The College of Wooster’s Wooster Invitational, with the women finishing ninth out of 13 teams and the men 12th out of 14. The weekend’s defining moment belonged to senior Anna Brown ’26 (no relation to the author), whose 1,500-meter victory set a new stadium record.
Women: Brown crossed the tape first in 4:38.23, erasing the previous stadium mark of 4:39.65 and coming within a second of both her personal best and the Kenyon program record set by Kelley Wilder ’93 back in 1993.
Brown felt that the race was controlled from the start, with her focus on positioning rather than the clock. “I went into the race with the goal to win,” she wrote in an email to the Collegian. “I had run against some of the other competitors before and lost, so I wanted to take the opportunity to prove myself.” She added that she wasn’t even aware of the stadium record until afterward — making it a welcome surprise. “It’s the first time I’ve broken a stadium record.”
The program record, however, has been in Brown’s sights for a while. “I’ve actually been chasing this record for about a year now,” she wrote. “Every time I step onto the track, I want to improve. Being so close is very motivating and something I hope to achieve before the end of the season.”
Kenyon’s sprinting corps carried much of the team’s scoring load beyond Brown’s win. Ari Sobel ’28 took third in the 400-meter (59.13) for six points. Later in the day, Sobel teamed up with Noa Helmbrecht ’28, Lia Wahl ’29 and Georgia Yatrakis ’29 to run a 50.12 in the 4×100 relay, good for fourth place and six additional team points. Sobel also posted a personal-record 26.53 in the 200-meter for ninth place.
Men: Charlie Blackmer ’28 dominated in the 800-meter, beating a 49-runner field with a time of 1:54.47. The 1,500-meter also yielded points for the Owls, as Charlie Menzel ’28 finished seventh out of 67 runners in 4:05.00, with Owen Rodstrom ’26 just behind in ninth at 4:05.96.
In the field, J’Sun Gardner ’26 and Ezekiel Kiwanuka ’26 each earned eighth-place finishes — Gardner in the javelin at 39.60 meters and Kiwanuka in the long jump at 6.30 meters. Graham Yeager ’28 was active in the throwing events as well, posting an 11th-place discus mark of 45.05 meters.
Both squads now turn their attention to the All-Ohio Championships at Ohio Wesleyan University on Friday and Saturday. Brown, however, is planning to make the trip to Bucknell University for a larger open meet, where she’ll race the 800-meter against a wider, cross-divisional field.
For Brown, the urgency of a final season has only sharpened her focus. “This season has felt incredibly significant,” she wrote. “I want to take every opportunity I can to make the most of my time left as a collegiate athlete and hopefully inspire my teammates to do the same. I won’t always have such an amazing, hardworking and supportive group around me — so I’ve been trying to take nothing for granted.”