NORTHAMPTON, MA (February 1, 2025) – The UMass Boston women's track and field team won it's first meet as a team since the 2018 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor National Championships at the Yankee Small College Invitational from Smith College. The team placed first out of 12 competing teams with 134 points in Head Coach Ozzie Brown's first collegiate victory as a head coach in his inaugural season with UMass Boston. 
 

Sprints and hurdles yielded 62 points, distance runners scored 34 points, throws collected four points, jumps tallied 24 points, and the 4x400m relay team added 10 points.

Junior hurdler Aryianna Garceau (Dalton, Mass.) continues her tear of a season with another school record in the 60m hurdles, her third broken record in the hurdles this season. She qualified for the finals in 8.69s and followed suit with a new personal record, an 8.56s scorcher to break her own record in the 60m hurdles, and further cemented herself as the nation's leading hurdler. 8.56s has Garceau tied with three other athletes for 16th fastest NCAA DIII 60m hurdle finish of all time.

Senior vaulter Mackenzie Jorgensen represented the Beacons in the pole vault, clearing 2.20m for six points through a third-place finish.

Senior Dorinda Okorji (Maynard, Mass.) won the women's long jump with a 5.16m (16 ft, 11.25 in), followed by sophomore Jhenelle Evans (Milton, Mass) in second place with a 4.60m (15 ft, 1 in) for eight points to total 18 in the event.

Okorji, Evans, and senior Elizabeth Roy (Abington, Mass.) each qualified for finals in the 60m dash, with the Beacons sweeping the top three finishes. Okorji finished first in 7.98s for 10 points, followed by Roy in second place with a new personal record of 8.29s and eight points, and Evans with an 8.31s finish for third place and six points.

UMass Boston also swept the top three finishers in the 200m dash, with Garceau taking first in 25.75s, followed by Roy in second place with another personal-best 28.42s, and senior Harleen Bassan (Northampton, Eng.) in third place for six points.

Bassan represented the Beacons in the women's 400m dash and took fourth place in 1:07.25s, for her tenth points in the meet.

Junior Jacqueline Earner (Abington, Mass.) torched the field in the women's 600m dash, winning the event in 1:44.33s for another ten points for UMass Boston.

First-year Kylee Browning (Attleboro, Mass.) showed out in the 800m dash with a second-place finish of 2:43.94s for eight points, the first scoring points of her career for the Beacons.

The distance duo of Grace Colon (West Roxbury, Mass.) and Shea Roche (Weymouth, Mass.) represented the Beacons in the women's 5,000m run, with Roche picking up a new personal record of 18:56.71s to win the event and add ten points, followed by Colon in third with a third-place 19:34.56 finish for six points. Roche's finish erupts her previous personal-best by 30 seconds, breaking Colon's school-record set back in February of 2024 by nearly 11 seconds in a stellar performance. 

The 4x400m relay team of Garceau, Browning, Earner and Bassan won the event in 4:32.97s.

First-year Katie Tuohy doubled up in the thrower's circle, setting new personal records in both shotput, and weight throw(9.80m – 32 ft. 2 in.), while placing fourth in the women's shotput. Junior Abigail Schell (Boston, Mass.) was the top finisher for the Beacons in the women's weight throw with a new personal record of 9.99m (32 ft. 9.5 in.).

UMass Boston track and field will continue to push the needle next weekend, with two opportunities to compete at the Velocity Cup Invitational from the TRACK at New Balance on Friday, February 7, and the University of Rhode Island Coaches Invitational on Saturday. Stay tuned for information on schedules, entries, and order of events for the upcoming meetings. For all things UMass Boston Athletics, stay tuned at UMass Boston - Official Athletics Website.