American University’s track and field team wrapped up its regular season at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Relays on April 25 and 26. The Eagles’ outdoor track season has been strong, with athletes regularly setting new personal bests and breaking school records.

American’s track and field head coach Sean Graham was impressed with the campaign’s trajectory and talked about his squad’s success.

“Compared to what we’ve done in the past, including what the conference is doing, we’ve exceeded some of our expectations in that the number of school records that have gone down this year has far exceeded my expectations after a short while,” Graham said.

During the Virginia Challenge on April 18 at the University of Virginia, freshman Tamara Dorval broke American’s 100-meter record to start the meet, placing 27th with a personal record of 12.00 seconds. Additionally, junior Kaden Kluth and sophomore Ciera Thacker ran their personal bests for the Eagles, each moving up to second all-time for American in the 1500-meter and 100-meter races, respectively.

The track and field team had broken records at the Dalton Ebanks Invitational at George Mason University on April 5, with the women’s 4x100 squad of freshman Zoe Clark , Dorval, Thacker, and sophomore Lorelei Bangit breaking the Eagles’ program record by six seconds, placing second in 47.05 seconds.

American’s track and field team also sent its first all-female squad to the Penn Relays, with the team narrowly missing the school records it had set previously.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Dorval, Bangit, and Clark also returned with freshman Lara Gin to beat the previous school record by 14 seconds in the 4x400 relay, finishing at 3:49.86.

As for recent notable performances on both the men’s and women’s teams, Graham mentioned junior Carver Morgan ’s performance at the Patriot League Indoor Championships on the campus of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he finished with a gold medal in the 800-meter and a personal record of 1 minute, 49.37 seconds.

“And you know [Morgan] has done phenomenally so far this year and then on, come on the men's side, we’ve got two sort of middle distance aces,” Graham said. “Now Kate includes in the 1500 and Carver Morgan, in the 800, who are pushing the needle on in the national levels of competition,” he said of junior Kate Riley and Morgan.

This year's Patriot League Championships, hosted at the Naval Academy in a month, also saw Bangit earn silver in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.84 seconds, smashing her school record that she had set in the preliminary round the previous day. Breaking her 400 record thrice on the weekend, she also broke the school 200-meter dash record and finished in 24.96 seconds.

The men’s distance medley relay squad for American, consisting of senior Danny O’Neill , freshman Brandon Williams , Morgan and Kluth, finished the race in 9 minutes, 45.81 seconds, earning silver and a fifth all-time mark for the Eagles.

After racing in the Patriot League Championships, Kluth and Morgan ran at the IC4A and ECAC Division I Indoor Championships hosted by Boston University on March 9. In the open mile, Kluth won in 4 minutes, 3.54 seconds, with Morgan coming in fifth at 4 minutes, 7.59 seconds.

This past weekend, American competed at the Patriot League Outdoor Championships, hosted by the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. On the tournament's first day, Bangit broke school records in the preliminary rounds of both the 200-meter and 400-meter events, finishing at 54.20 seconds and 24.39 seconds, respectively. Additionally, Dorval broke her school record in the 100-meter prelims, finishing with a time of 11.86 seconds.

On the second day of the PL Championships, Kluth and Morgan won gold. Breaking American’s 17-year drought in the men’s 1500 event, Kluth won in 3:49.60, becoming AU’s first champion in the event since 2008. Morgan finished the 800-meter run with a personal best and meet record time of 1:47.91. Winning both the indoor and outdoor 800 men’s titles, Morgan now ranks 32nd in the NCAA East Region. Additionally, Bangit broke AU’s program best in the 400 meters with a finishing time of 54.00 seconds.

“So we’ve got a handful of athletes who have already qualified for the IC4A Championships with the ECAC Championships, two weeks after the Patriot Leagues at George Mason,” Graham said. “We currently have two athletes who are likely to have qualified for the NCAA first round, which is two weeks from now in Florida. And if that goes well, two weeks after that are the NCAA final rounds out in Eugene, [Oregon].”

Athletes who have qualified will go on to compete at the IC4A and ECAC Championships at George Mason University on the weekend of May 16.

This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Penelope Jennings and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Olivia Citarella, Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Nicole Kariuki and Hannah Langenfeld.