The New York University men's and women's sprint and field athletes competed at the Big Apple Invitational on Saturday, February 11, at Ocean Breeze Park Track & Field Complex on Staten Island, while members of the distance squad competed at the Gordon Kelly Invitational at the Johnson Indoor Track on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA.

In Cambridge, Jeffrey Chen took first place in his debut 5,000-meter run as a Violet. He finished in 15:18.20, while freshman counterpart Brandon Meiner followed in second with a time of 15:45.21.

On the women's side, Sophie Carissimo (3:12.69) was first overall in the 800-meter run while Violet Lahive placed third overall in 3:25.69.

In her first 5k outing, freshman Emily Castles took third overall in 19:05.08.

The Big Apple Invitational was the scene of many personal records for the Violets, beginning in the first race of the day with Alyssa Meng clocking in at 8.52 in the 60-meter dash

Dasha Jackson (9.67) and Mackenzie Richards (9.91) set personal records in the 60-meter hurdles.

In the women's 400-meter dash, three Violets recorded personal bests: Kamila Sanusi (1:02.21), Lola Akindele (1:02.38) and Laila Goodman (1:03.03). Both Akindele and Sanusi also achieved top times in the 200-meter dash, finishing in 27.29 and 27.65, respectively.

For the men, all four NYU competitors set personal records in the 400-meter dash: James Thompson (51.37), Austin Cabanban (51.91), Victor Lam (52.00), and Sagar Sharma (53.14)

On the field side, freshman Areyanna McCarthy recorded a new best in the triple jump at 1.50-meters.

Emma Grunnin set a personal best for the second week in a row with a 9.97-meter throw in the shot put. Daniel Lee, Paul Ioffreda and Kai Aravena set personal records in the shot put with throws of 11.13-meters, 10.84-meters and 10.29-meters, respectively.

"Today we had several personal bests and the athletes are quickly piecing it together on how to be successful when it matters most," said Associate Head Coach Michael Roberts.

Both the men and women's teams return to action on Friday, February 25, and Saturday, February 26, when they travel to Waltham, MA, to compete in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Indoor Championships hosted by Brandies University.