While attentive eyes around campus turned to the Ivy Madness-hopeful men’s and women’s basketball teams, Brown’s athletes delivered standout performances across the board.
On College Hill, the women’s track and field team took home the gold at the Brown Invitational, while the women’s gymnastics team placed second in the Ivy Classic. In Princeton, the women’s swimming and diving team finished fourth in the Ivy League Championships. In South Carolina, the softball team started out the season 3-2, and the women’s ice hockey team brought their season to a close in the playoffs.
Women’s track and field takes first place, men’s third at Brown Invitational
On Saturday, the track team hosted the Brown Invitational, their second home event of the season. Competing against 11 other teams, the women’s team took home first place with 120 points, while the men placed third with 73 points.
Chidinma Agbasi ’25 once again led the Bears, building on her program-record 19.72-meter weight throw at the Yale Invitational two weeks ago. With an impressive 18.98-meter effort, Agbasi took home first place on Saturday, the final home performance of her career.
“I think that competing at home really helped me remember to have fun and enjoy this sport,” Agbasi wrote in a message to The Herald. “It’s really easy to get caught up in distances, how you’re competing and how your opponents are doing. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to compete at this meet and be recognized as a senior.”
Apart from the weight throw, Brown dominated the 1000-meter race across both teams. Julia Schriefer ’26 spearheaded the women’s team, clinching a gold medal with a time of two minutes and 56.66 seconds. On the men’s end, Colin Fisher ’28 raced to a first-place victory, while also setting a new personal record of 2:30.59.
Matching this dynamic, the men’s and women’s teams both saw silver medal finishers in the 500-meter race. Katrina Sortland ’27 clinched the second spot for the women with a time of 1:17.94, and the men’s Cameron Walter ’28 won the silver in 1:07.07.
As the home crowd looked on, the Bears continued to secure medals in event after event. In 7.09 seconds, Skyler Hall ’27 raced to second in the men’s 60-meter finals. Luke Bodden ’28 took home a silver medal in the mile run with a time of 4:35.05. Nick Strayer ’28 finished third in the men’s 500 in 1:08.98, and Sam Colton ’25 won the bronze in the 3000-meter race after 8:49.31. Capping off the night, Zoe Carter-Konate ’26 earned a podium position as well, taking third place with a 16.93-meter effort in the weight throw.
“The team is very locked in,” Agbasi wrote about the upcoming Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Championships. “We all recognize that we have been training for this and know that this is our time to execute.”
“Each and every one of us winning, PRing and scoring points is well within reach,” she added. “We have taken on the mindset that no one is better than us. We will compete with all of our hearts and we will support our teammates in all that we do.”
The Bears will next compete at Heps on March 1. Last year, the women’s team finished in fourth place, while the men’s placed fifth.
Gymnastics places second in Ivy Classic
On Sunday, the women’s gymnastics team (6-9, 4-4 Ivy) competed in the Ivy Classic in Ithaca, N.Y. With a cumulative score of 194.800, the Bears finished just behind Penn.
Brown opened the competition with an electric performance on the floor, scoring 49.100 points — the eighth highest score in program history. During the floor event, Maya Davis ’25, who is also a staff writer for The Herald, stunned the crowd with a shattering 9.900 routine — an effort that earned her the individual Ivy Title.
Apart from the floor, Bruno excelled on the beams, scoring 49.175 points and setting a new program record. For the second time of the day, an athlete, Emily Ford ’27, clinched an individual Ivy Title with an impressive score of 9.900.
Throughout the day, the Bears secured eight All-Ivy Classic honors. In addition to Davis’s and Ford’s Ivy Titles, Avery Walters ’28 won All-Ivy honors in all three of her events: the floor, the beam and the bars. Capping the list are Sophia Dewar ’26 on vault, Lindsay Van Eyk ’27 on the beam and Liza Marcus ’26 on the floor.
The gymnastics team will host Rhode Island College and Southern Connecticut State at the Pizzitola Sports Center on March 2 at 2 p.m.
Women’s ice hockey playoff hopes fall short in first-round loss
Two weeks ago, the women’s ice hockey team (14-13-3) concluded a historic regular season, qualifying for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs and securing the team’s most regular season wins since the 2005-06 season. Last Saturday, they took on Union College in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite outshooting the Garnet Chargers 35-25 throughout the game, the Bears were unable to break past Union’s goalkeeper and were held scoreless. In an unfortunate repeat of their January matchup — which ended 2-1 in Union’s favor — Brown lost again, this time falling 2-0.
“We approached the game with a great deal of purpose and were prepared to execute,” Head Coach Melanie Ruzzi said in a message to Brown Athletics. “We threw everything at them offensively and sustained (our) offense for long stretches but just couldn't break through.”
For the Bears’ five seniors — Cameron Sikich ’25, Paige Gross ’25, Abby Hancock ’25, Anna Shelden ’25 and Jess Ciarrocchi ’25 — Saturday’s game marked their last opportunity to play at home.
For Sikich, Saturday’s game also concluded a 48-block, 13-assist and 5-goal season. Sikich’s efforts were recognized with the Honorable Mention All-Ivy honor for the third year in a row. She was also nominated to the Academic All-Ivy team.
“I personally owe a great deal to this senior class for their commitment to Brown Hockey, to driving this program forward and for accepting our staff,” Ruzzi said. “It will be a tough reality to not have practice to look forward to on Monday with this group of women, but I am so thankful for four years with them.”
Apart from Sikich, Monique Lyons ’28 was also recognized for her successful 14-goal season. Appointed to the ECAC All-Rookie team, Lyons’s lethal shooting landed her among the top-ten goal scorers in the conference.
Softball debuts with double-header victories, while baseball loses four consecutive games
On Friday, the softball team (3-2) kicked off their season with a five-game weekend competition in Rock Hill, South Carolina. In their first showing under new Head Coach Mary Holt-Kelsch, the Bears throttled Youngstown State 13-2 and defeated Winthrop 6-2 — the first time the team has started a season 2-0 since 2010.
Though the game against Winthrop started slowly, Bruno’s offense gradually gained traction, unleashing a seven-run flurry in the seventh inning.
Leah Carey ’25 starred in the victory, collecting three runs and three runs batted in. Alyssa Villarde ’27 scored two runs of her own, and both Amanda Deng ’28 and Abby Bettencourt ’28 helped the offense with one run batted in each.
Brown’s scoring petered out after the offensive barrages during the first two games. By the second day of competition, in which the Bears faced Le Moyne and St. Johns, Bruno only scored three runs, losing both games.
But by Sunday, the Bears were back and delivered a forceful 10-5 performance against Youngstown.
“Great weekend to see a lot of great things and learn what we as a team really need to invest in our time this week,” Holt-Kelsch said in a message to Brown Athletics.
Lydell Dyer is a sports editor for The Herald. A junior hailing from Bonn, Germany, Lydell is studying nonfiction English and political science, and if he's not off "making words sound pretty," you can find him lifting heavy circles at the Nelson.
