Judges track and field wins two national titles at NCAA Championships

The Judges won their first-ever relay title, with anchor Emily Bryson ‘19 also winning an individual title at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships

Photo/Tessa Holleran '21

Julia Bryson '19, Devin Hiltunen '22, Doyin Ogundiran '19 and Emily Bryson '19 stand atop the podium with coaches Steve Flanagan (left) and Delahunty Evans

The Brandeis women’s track and field team won its first-ever relay title, with anchor Emily Bryson ‘19 also winning an individual title at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 9 and 10 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

Emily Bryson ’19 won the mile run with a time of 4:45.90, the fifth-fastest mile in Division III history and the fastest time overall on a banked track.

With the win, Bryson won her second consecutive individual national championship, having also won the 3,000 meter run last year.

With Bryson’s help, the Judges also won the distance medley relay for the first time in school history in a time of 11:40.64, a program record.

Bryson’s twin sister, Julia, led the race off with the 1,200-meter leg. She ran 3:37.07 and handed off to rookie Devin Hiltunen ’22 for the 400 leg in fifth place.

Hiltunen was able to maintain her position and passed off to senior Doyin Ogundiran ’19, just a shade out of fifth place after running a leg of 59.70. Ogundiran bided her time for the first three laps then pushed into the second position, running a leg of 2:13.75, the second-fastest 800 of the race.

Ogundiran handed off to Emily Bryson, who took the lead on the final lap. Bryson ran 4:50.10, including a 31-second final lap to earn Brandeis its first-ever national championship in a relay, men or women.

Thanks to the 20 points scored by Bryson and the DMR team, the Judges finished the 2019 NCAA Division III Championship in seventh place. That put them second among New England schools, behind only national champions Williams (42 points), and third among University Athletic Association schools behind runners-up Washington University (40 points) and sixth-place Chicago (21.7 points).

This marks Brandeis' best finish at an NCAA Women's Indoor Track and Field Championship since placing third in 1992.

"Everyone ran beautifully," said head coach Sinead Delahunty Evans. "They executed the plan perfectly. Julia put us in a great position to start the race. Devin's 400 was terrific, for a first-year runner to stay competitive the way she did, was awesome. Doyin ran the way she has all season, stayed really patient and paced herself, pushing when she needed to. And Emily ran the way she has all season long, running comfortably until it was time to close it out."