James Corbett and Frankie Lynch running in an early season meet. (courtesy of Oliver Witt)

The No. 1 women’s and No. 12 men’s track and field teams competed at the Culver-Stockton College Wildcat Invite in Canton, Missouri on April 18. Both teams brought home several wins with the University Athletic Association (UAA) Outdoor Championships just about a week away. 

Women’s track and field:

The team was very successful in their throwing events at this meet. Junior Jenae Bothe won the shot put with an impressive throw of 14.45 meters, which places her at the top of the UAA this season. Senior Taylor Simpson came in fourth place with a distance of 11.54 meters and senior Catryn Cattoor finished fifth with a distance of 11.37 meters.

Bothe nearly won the discus as well, finishing less than a meter behind the winning throw with a distance of 38.36 meters. Simpson and Cattoor finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Junior Kally Mack was the runner-up in the hammer throw with a personal record (PR) of 44.15 meters, which puts her in eighth place in the UAA for this event.

Senior Molly Morton finished in seventh with a throw distance of 30.87 meters.

Graduate student Ebun Opata had an incredibly successful meet and performed strongly in the jumping events. Opata won the long jump with a distance of 5.57 meters. Opata also won her second event of the meet, with a 12.82 meter jump in the triple jump — over two meters ahead of the runner-up and a new PR.

Opata’s triple jump currently ranks first in the UAA and sixth in Division III history. She is also ranked as first in the UAA for the high jump and second for the long jump.

“The moment the official announced the distance I triple-jumped, I remember just standing there in shock,” Opata said. “Performing so well at a low-stakes meet the weekend before conference championships turned out to be the confidence boost I really needed.”

Sophomore Maya Davis finished seventh in the long jump with a distance of 5.00 meters.

The Bears dominated the 4×100 relay. Team A — composed of Davis, sophomore Nicole Stewart, senior Lauren Gay, and junior Jasmine Wright, won the race with a time of 46.63 seconds. Team B — junior Kylie Spytek, sophomore Julia Coric, first-year Quinn Bird, and first-year Leah Phelps, placed second with a time of 47.93 seconds. The third-place finisher trailed by nearly three seconds.

The Bears were also successful in the 4×400 relay. Team A, consisting of sophomore Gayle Henderson, Stewart, senior Izzy Gorton, and sophomore Cate Christopher, won the event with a time of 3:52.63. Team B, consisting of senior Ruby Kaplan, senior Morgan Fowler, junior Elizabeth Wagner, and junior Cate Stevens, finished in third, and team C, consisting of first-year Ellie Cain, sophomore Lily Dipple, senior Isabel Boufarah, and junior Virginia Schulte, in fourth.

WashU continued its dominant performance in the 1500, claiming the top 12 spots. Senior Sophie Bekins won the race with a time of 4:36.08. Senior Virginia Prigden finished second with a time of 4:36.86, and junior Katie Rector in third with a time of 4:37.19.

Gay won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.42 seconds. Sophomore Holland Kantar came in eighth place for the same event with a time of 16.08.

The Bears also competed strongly in the 400-meter hurdles, with two hurdlers finishing in the top five. Kaplan was the runner-up with a time of 1:04.99 and Wagner finished in fourth with a time of 1:08.42.

Wright came in first in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.86 seconds. Wright already holds the top time in the UAA for this season. Davis finished in fifth with a time of 12.33, which is the eighth fastest in the UAA this season. Phelps finished in ninth with a time of 12.60.

Henderson won the 400m dash with a time of 59.31.

The Bears were dominant in the 800m run, holding all of the top six positions. Gorton won the race with a time of 2:10.14. Christopher was the runner-up with a time of 2:13.34, followed by Stevens with a time of 2:15.75.

Spytek finished in third place in the 200m dash with a time of 24.61 — the third fastest in the UAA this season. Stewart finished just behind Spytek with a time of 24.63, which is the fourth fastest in the UAA.

Men’s Track and Field:

The men’s team competed strongly in the mid- and long-distance events.

The Bears’ most dominant performance occurred in the 1,500m run, where they claimed the top eights spots, and 10 of the top 11. Junior James Corbett won the race with a time of 3:54.88. Senior Frankie Lynch was the runner-up, and senior Fernando Ribeiro Duaraes finished in third, just .01 seconds behind Lynch. 

This dominance continued in the 800m. Sophomore William Frohling won the race with a time of 1:52.29. Senior Jesse Sanchez finished fourth with a time of 1:58.70.

The Bears held two spots on the podium in the 5,000m run. Junior Alexander Bullard was the runner-up of this race with a time of 15:52.41, and first-year Joshua Poeschel finished next with a time of 16:17.32.

Junior Brandon Brazil placed fifth in the 400m with a time of 51.26.

The Bears made the podium for the 400m hurdles with a third-place finish from first-year Benjamin Kruger, who finished with a time of 56.63.

WashU’s 4×400-meter relay team — Brazil, Corbett, Kruger, and Charlie Fallon — won the event with a time of 3:19.09.

First-year Ian Murphy placed 11th in discus with a throw of 37.70 meters.

In his collegiate debut in the event, first-year Maulama Kimata finished in third place in the javelin throw with a distance of 48.13 meters.

“Normally, I’m a sprinter, so you know, just having the opportunity to compete was really fun, and I was super grateful for that, but to make the podium on top of that was probably an even greater feeling, especially because it was my first time,” Kimata said. “So yeah, just a sense of a lot of gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity.”

Junior Carson Page finished in fifth place in the long jump with a distance of 6.47 meters. 

Sophomore Nathan Scherer finished in fifth place in the triple jump with a distance of 13.65 meters.

WashU will compete for the UAA outdoor title at the 2025 UAA Outdoor Championships, taking place Saturday, April 26, through Sunday, April 27, at NYU’s Icahn Stadium. The women’s team has an opportunity to  continue its seven-year streak as UAA Outdoor Champions and defend their UAA Indoor Championship title it won in March — their sixth in a row.

“I feel calm heading into this weekend,” Opata said. I’m ready to compete against national-level athletes within our conference, and I look forward to feeding off the team’s energy as they put up great times and marks in their events.”

“It’s really just exciting to finally go out there and of course to travel to New York, that’s even more exciting. That’ll be my first trip there too, so I’m super stoked,” Kimata said. “ Everyone’s excited, but also really locked in. People will sense that, of course, we can get a lot of points and score and hopefully win [the] conference. It’s [a] really exciting and fun time.”