SOMERVILLE, Mass. (March 29, 2025) – The Golden Bears competed in the Snowflake Classic, an Outdoor Track and Field meet hosted by Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts. The team saw some top times and distances, including two New England DIII Championship qualifiers. Ike Ogbonnanaze threw 13.46m in the shot put field event, and Matt Provost ran a 10,000m time of 33.31. Those qualifiers led the Golden Bears to a highly successful first outdoor meet in the program's history.

Place:

Women's Team: 20th/20 

Men's Team: 5th/16

How it Happened:

The Golden Bears saw success in Somerville on the track and in the field. On the track, the women's team saw Imani Brown-Taylor get eighth place in the 200m race out of 39 runners. Brown-Taylor ran a top time of 28.68 in the race. Brown-Taylor would excel not just on the track but also in a field event. Brown-Taylor would earn eighth place out of 25 participants in the Long Jump event. Brown-Taylor would earn a best jump of 4.79m to earn the top-eight jump. Also competing on the track was Olivia Kay, who had a top performance in the 5,000m race. Kay finished the race with a time of 20:43 to end the race first for the Golden Bears. Lauren Ayotte would also put up a top performance for the Golden Bears in the field events. Ayotte would grab ninth place in the Javelin. Ayotte threw the Javelin 27.07m in Ayotte's longest throw of the day.

The men's team would also see success on the track. Dennis Kotee would excel in the 100m race. Kotee ran a time of 11.74, placing Kotee ninth out of 35 runners in the 100m race. That top-ten time would place first for the Golden Bears. Kotee would also show success in a field event. Kotee competed in the Triple Jump and earned second place in the event with a best jump of 11.89m. That was the best jump by a Golden Bear on the men's team. Steel Land also competed in the Triple Jump for the Golden Bears. Land would excel as Land placed fifth in the event with a best jump of 11.56m. Nolan Palmer would continue the WNE success with a sixth-place finish in the 400m hurdles. Palmer earned a time of 1:00.16 to place sixth in the event. The Golden Bears men's team would also place top three in the 4x100m relay with a third-place finish. The team of Jason Pratt, Jack Straut, Jack Levesque, and Dennis Kotee ran a time of 45.13 to earn that place.

The Golden Bears also saw two of their team members make history. Matt Provost and Ike Ogbonnanaze became the first Golden Bears in program history to qualify for the New England DIII Championships. Ike Ogbonnanaze would qualify in the Shot Put event with a best throw of 13.46m, which placed Ogbonnanaze second place out of 39 competitors in the Shot Put event at the Snowflake Classic. Ogbonnanaze would excel in the Discuss event as well. Ogbonnanaze won the event for the Golden Bears out of the 39 throwers in the event. Ogbonnanaze earned a best throw of 39.66m to win the event at the classic by .05m. Matt Provost was the other New England DIII Championships qualifier. Provost ran the 10,000m race for the Golden Bears and ran a top-ten time in the event. Provost finished in tenth place in the race and ran a qualifying time of 33:31.57. The two qualifying marks for Ogbonnanaze and Provost would help lead the men's team to a fifth-place team finish in the program's very first outdoor track and field meet.

Up Next on the Schedule:

• The Golden Bears will travel to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and the Elliot Field Athletic Complex on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at 10:00 AM for the Jim Sheehan Invitational.