Since she was young, Nikki Vanasse, CC ’24, has been immersed in a culture of running. Her mother, Kelly Groteke Vanasse, ran cross country and track and field at Yale, becoming a two-time All-American and five-time Ivy League Heptagonal champion. Her father, Gerald Vanasse, took second at the 1984 Boston Marathon and refined his skills alongside American running icons Bill Rodgers and Pete Pfitzinger.

The Lions opened the weekend on April 12 with the UCONN Northeast Challenge hosted by the University of Connecticut. The women’s team finished 12th with a point tally of 23 and the men’s team finished 16th with a point tally of 23.

Track and field traveled to North Carolina State University to compete in the Raleigh Relays on March 28 and 29. The Light Blue later competed at the Sam Howell Invitational on March 30, hosted at Princeton, New Jersey, where several Lions secured spots on the podium.

Track and field’s outdoor season started with a bang last Saturday as they competed alongside 10 other teams at the Penn Challenge.

Amid a crowd of over 15,000 spectators, only 20 some voices cheered for the four Lions set to compete at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri from March 21 to 23. Closing out their historic season, sophomore Kai Owen, senior Lennox Wolak, junior Aaron Ayzerov, and sophomore Jack Wehmeyer prepared to take on one of wrestling’s biggest stages: the NCAA Championships.

Men’s Ivy Madness started with a bang in Levien Gymnasium. While Princeton suffered one of the biggest upset losses of the college basketball postseason to No. 4 seed Brown, Yale walked away victorious from a physical and competitive contest against Cornell to make its fourth consecutive appearance in the Ivy Madness championship.

A select squad of members of the track and field team traveled to Boston last weekend for the 2024 Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America and Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, where senior Nikki Vanasse’s performance was the highlight of the meet for the Lions.

Softball traveled to Boca Raton, Florida, last weekend to take on Boston College, Florida Gulf Coast University, Rhode Island University, and Florida Atlantic University for its season-opening games at the Florida Atlantic University Owl Classic.