Reigning Patriot League Indoor Women’s Field Athlete of the Meet Peace Omonzane (CAS’26) with jumps and multis coach Sara Macey. Photos by Jerry Larson

Athletics

BU Track and Field Teams Compete at 2024 Patriot League Outdoor Championships This Weekend

Men’s and women’s squads hope to beat their February top-three indoor championships finishes

Boston University’s men’s and women’s track and field teams have been chasing the United States Naval Academy for the better part of the last decade. This weekend, the Terriers have a chance to beat the reigning Patriot League champion and capture the men’s first-ever Patriot League title, the women’s second. 

The Terriers will travel to Bucknell University Friday, for the two-day Patriot League Outdoor Championships at Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pa. The programs are being overseen by their three assistant coaches, Jordan Carpenter, Grant Cartwright, and Sara Macey, after Gabe Sanders stepped down as director of track and field and cross country last week. 

The Terriers will compete against the 10-team PL field (9 for the men, as Loyola-Maryland does not have a men’s track program), aiming to usurp Navy, which has won the last 14 combined men’s and women’s outdoor championships.

“Whenever we go into these championships, we really just want to see the athletes go in and focus on competing, trying to perform at our best at the biggest meet of the year,” Carpenter says. “We want to see people show up and execute the plans from their event coaches, and usually, if we can do that, we’re going to be pretty happy with the result.” 

Women’s track and field

The women’s team has taken home outdoor Patriot League gold only once since joining the Patriot League—during their conference debut season in 2014.

Captain Alli Lofquist (Sargent’24) says the team’s focus this season has been on improving in each event to break Navy’s illustrious winning streak. 

“We are coming off of our fourth time placing second at conference; we weren’t that far behind—only 50 points behind Navy”—Lofquist says. “Going into this year’s championship, we’re thinking about where we can get those points from, what events people are going to do, and how we can best support them. Obviously, it’s one event at a time, but we’re also keeping the big picture in front of us and offering that extra support that teammates may need to really perform on the day.” 

Lofquist says the women’s squad has a new sense of confidence heading into this year’s championship. “The past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to be a captain of this team,” she says. “I think a lot of the women on the team realize now that we are capable of achieving a lot, that everybody knows that we are capable. I think it adds a little, it gives everyone a little boost of confidence going into the weekend.”

Headlining the women’s track effort is Vera Sjöberg (CAS’26), the reigning Track Athlete of the Week and PL Indoor Women’s Track Athlete of the Meet, who earned two gold medals at the February competition. Sjoberg, a 2023 Women’s First-Team All-Patriot League honoree and two-time PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year, earned a spot in the NCAA Preliminaries last year after a first-place finish in the 1,500M dash. 

From the field, Peace Omonzane (CAS’26) was tabbed as the Indoor Patriot League Women’s Field Athlete of the Meet in February after sweeping the long jump and triple jump events, the latter a meet record (12.79m). 

Men’s track and field 

The men’s track and field team has not finished higher than third place in their nine outdoor seasons in the Patriot League, but the BU athletes are optimistic about their chances for finally scoring a conference title. 

“The team is in a great spot, we’ve been building to this the whole year,” says distance runner Kevin Murphy (Questrom’24). “This is the biggest meet on the calendar for the whole team. It comes up at a crazy point in time, where it’s finals week, but the team is looking great and feeling good. Team morale is actually pretty high comparative to years in the past. I think we’re kind of just excited to go out there and make some noise.” 

Foster Malleck (Questrom’23, MET’25) and Freddy Collins (ENG’26) are in the mix for big performances on the track this weekend. Both Malleck (3:55.80) and Collins (3:59.59) have clocked sub-4-minute miles at indoor events this season. 

“We’re in a position where, yes, certainly the distance runners have dominated in the league indoors,” Carpenter says. “But we’re looking to get contributions from all the event areas. We have very balanced teams, and we have really strong athletes across the board for every event area to step up and score points and execute.”

From the field, attention will be focused on Cole Tucker (COM’25), who’s 18.26m shot put mark is the second-best in BU history, and second in the Patriot League. He earned this mark, and Patriot League Men’s Field Athlete of the Week, at the Skyhawk Invitational on April 27.

Murphy says the Outdoor Championships offer a rare opportunity for the entire team to come together as one. Across the season of track and field, the athletes are separated by their events at meets across the country. 

“This is the first meet where we’re all together in the same place,” he says. “being able to go and cheer on teammates from different event groups that you may not have seen compete since February, if at all. This is the moment where it kind of all comes together and you really do feel like a team.”

The Boston University men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete at the Patriot League Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships starting Friday, May 3, at Bucknell University’s Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pa. Live stats and results will be available all day on patriotleague.org, and BU fans can find more information on goterriers.com and follow along on Twitter at @TerrierTFXC and @BUGameDay.