Track and Field Terriers Head to Patriot League Outdoor Championships

For sophomores like Kathleen Overbaugh (Questrom’24), this has been the first full-length track and field season of their college career.
Track and Field Terriers Head to Patriot League Outdoor Championships
Athletes chasing individual, team titles at Navy this weekend
The Terrier track and field teams head to Annapolis, Md., this weekend to compete in the Patriot League Outdoor Track and Field Championships, and Gabe Sanders, director of track and field and cross country, couldn’t be more excited. This year has been the closest thing to a normal season Sanders has seen since arriving at BU three years ago from Stanford. (He had been a BU assistant coach from 2008 to 2015.)
“It really feels like the first year, because it’s a year where there’s been no interruption,” he says. “We’re traveling to meets and going up against some of the best student athletes and programs in the country. It’s surreal, and it’s a lot of fun experiencing this with the program now.”
Adding to Sanders’ enthusiasm is BU’s potential heading into this year’s championship competition. The Terriers haven’t secured a Patriot League outdoor title since the women accomplished the feat in 2014, their first year in the league, but in the wake of both the men’s and women’s teams claiming third at the 2022 Indoor Championships in February, Sanders is optimistic about their outlook this weekend.

“It 100 percent translates, because at the end of the day, you want to be competitive and you want to keep using momentum. You don’t want to rest on your laurels,” he says, “but you want to use that as positive momentum moving forward.”
The outdoor season began the last weekend of March when the Terriers sent groups to the Texas Relays, the Raleigh Relays, and the UMass Lowell Invitational. Those events netted a slew of top-10 finishes, school records, and personal bests, setting the bar for the season.
“We took full advantage of the first opportunity that we had to get out of Massachusetts. It was phenomenal,” Sanders says. It’s actually amazing the things that our program has done given the opportunities that have been given to us.”
On the men’s team, sprinter Toby Makoyawo (CAS’25) has had a record-setting freshman season, posting several victories, among them the only 100-meter time under 10 seconds at the Texas Relays. Dakota Jackson (CAS’24) battled through injury to earn a silver medal, second only to Makoyawo, at the Indoor Championships, and Leon Christian (CAS’25) has turned in an exceptional freshman year.
“Leon Christian in any other year would be the top-ranked guy in the 100, but he just happens to be teammates with another freshman, named Toby,” Sanders says.

The women’s team distance runners continue to impress, like Meghan Convery (COM’22), Madeline Bachmann (CAS’22), Daisy Liljegren (Sargent’24), and Andrea Claeson (CAS’23), who was named BU’s top female athlete of the year at last month’s Scarlet and White Honors, BU Athletics’ annual awards ceremony. Sanders says Claeson is “one of the best overall distance athletes in program history, a phenomenal student, and an incredible teammate.”
Sprinter Emma Montoya (CAS’22) rebounded from a COVID-19 scare to set a personal record and return atop the Patriot League rankings in just her second race back.
“We were worried that her career was going to be over, but she did not quit on herself, she did not quit on this program, and she did not quit on her team,” Sanders says. “She kept her dream alive and our dream alive. It’s stories like that that really set the tone of who we are and who we want to be.”
Away from the track, the men’s team has welcomed contributions from first-year throws duo Cole Tucker (COM’25) and Gabe Hickman (CAS’25), whose shot put performance earned him a silver medal at the Indoor Championships. Sanders also cites Dave Vovor (CAS’22) for his remarkable development this season.
“He has come so freaking far,” the coach says.
This year’s women’s jumps group has also drawn praise. Prior to missing time from injury, Emma Lawrence (CAS’25) won gold in the triple jump at the Indoor Championships and was named BU Athletics Rookie of the Year by her peers. Fellow first-year Asia Hamilton (COM’25) has also taken strong career strides, overcoming a slow start at the Indoor Championships to finish high in the triple jump and high jump.
“It’s very hard to do that, especially as a true freshman,” Sanders says. “I’m really proud of her, and I give her a lot of credit for having that bounce-back in that moment.”
That resiliency on the part of his athletes is one of the qualities that Sanders says makes him proud of this year’s roster. “’Opportunity’ has been kind of our theme,” he says. “How do you approach competition? It’s either a threat or an opportunity. When you view it as an opportunity, you have the opportunity to get better. It’s a growth mindset, and we have used every opportunity before us.”
Sanders credits his coaching staff and team captains for instilling this mentality in the team. “We have so many great people that are about setting the standard, raising the standard, and pushing everyone to that standard.”
The Patriot League Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held at the US Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Md., on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7. Fans can view the results as they happen through PatriotLeague.org and GoTerriers.com, and follow along on Twitter through @BUGameDay and @TerrierTFXC.
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