Indoor Track & Field's 2024-25 Season Begins Friday

Friday, December 6

New York, N.Y.

10:00 a.m.

Columbia University

Rutgers Holiday Classic

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics / Stockton Photo, Inc.

Indoor Track & Field's 2024-25 Season Begins Friday

12/5/2024 5:00:00 PM | Track and Field

Lions kick things off at the Rutgers Holiday Classic on Friday morning

NEW YORK — The Columbia track & field team's indoor season begins tomorrow with the Rutgers Holiday Classic at the Armory. The meet is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.

Columbia will look to build off of the 2023-24 indoor season, in which the women finished in fifth place at Heps with 63 points and the men finished in eighth place at Heps with 28 points. The Lions will return one gold medal winner in Phoebe Anderson, who won the 5,000m run with an Ivy League Heps record time of 15:41.31.

Also returning is Talha Syed, who had an incredible performance in the men's 3,000m run at Indoor Heps last year. He finished with a time of 14:01.63, which would have been good for an Ivy League title, but he was unfortunately disqualified. That does not take away from the outstanding showing he had in the event, and it is an incredible accomplishment.

The Lions also return two Heps silver medalists. Rory Clare took second in the 1,000m (2:46.19), and Elia Ton-That won two silver medals in the 3,000m and 5,000m.

Anderson went on to be named a Second Team All-American at the NCAA Indoor Championships, after crossing the finish line with a time of 15:37.21 in the 5k which was good for 10th place in the competition.

The Lions are fresh off a very successful cross country season, which saw Anderson named an NCAA All-American for the second consecutive season. She finished in 26th place with a time of 19:56.0 in the 6k hosted at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course at the University of Wisconsin.

Syed was named NCAA All-Region after a 12th place finish at East Regionals, clocking in at 30:15.20.

The team will open the indoor track and field season on Friday at the Armory for the Rutgers Holiday classic, a competition where the Lions fared very well in 2023. Lucy Henkel won the women's mile with a time of 4:56.53, while Caleb Gartner won the men's mile with a time of 4:11.69. Rory Clare won the women's 3000m run with a time of 9:51.78, while Michael Danzi won the men's 3000m with a time of 8:10.08.

The Lions also fared well in field events, with Yoosang Kim winning the men's shot put with a mark of 17.02m. Jada Mia Puryear came in third in the women's shot put with a mark of 13.34m.

Columbia's full 2024-25 indoor schedule can be found HERE.

ON DECK:
The Lions will be off the rest of December for the holidays, before returning to action in the new year on January 17 in the NYC Gotham Cup.

Stay up to date on all things Columbia track & field by following the Lions on Twitter (@CULionsXCTF), Instagram (@culionsxctf) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).