Men’s and women’s track and field sets sight on nationals, again

Heading into 2026, both the NYU men’s and women’s track and field teams are aiming to build upon last season’s 42nd and 62nd place finishes, respectively, at the NCAA Division III championships last year. Additionally, NYU hopes to beat the total of nine runners the teams sent to the championships in Ohio last season. 

After competing in its first meet of the season at the Dec. 5th FastTrack Season Opener on Staten Island and sending four runners from the women’s team to the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 6, the Violets officially began its season on a positive note. 

According to head coach Tyler Deck Shipley, this served as an opportunity for competitors to “see where they’re at” and give runners from cross country season a proper transition indoors, as the athletes integrate into both teams and compete year-round.

“That’s the beauty of our sport,” Shipley said. “In no other sport are we together throughout the entire academic year. A huge reason why we’ve been successful is the commitment that they’ve had to the team and to each other all year round, and letting this be a really stabilizing factor in people’s lives while they’re at NYU.”

With the first meet, the team is able to gauge where they were in comparison to last year and avenge some shortcomings.

“Last year we ran into some injuries, and so some of the best people didn’t quite get there,” Shipley said. “If all goes according to plan, we can be a big step up this year.”

The team’s runners have been open about their goal to stack the field at the NCAA’s. After strong seasons last year, junior distance runner Julian Aske and senior distance runner Janie Cooper emerged as two contenders to qualify for the championships at the end of the season. In the field events, senior thrower Emma Grunin finished 14th in shot put at the UAA Indoor Championships in 2025, and senior thrower Daniel Lee placed ninth in the weighted throws, setting both up for a potential nationals bid this season.

Team culture has been a focal point for the Violets. Not just the men’s and women’s respective cultures, but the overall team culture has “always been top of mind,” according to Shipley, especially with competitors traveling to many different events on any given competition day.

“Most of us are from areas other than New York,” senior thrower Kai Aravena said. “We don’t have family coming, so having your team there to cheer you on helps a lot.”

Leaders of the team like Aravena have highlighted the need for consistency in the team’s performances and emphasized the intensity in early practices so far.

“People have been putting in work at practice,” Aravena said. “They seemed like they were excited and ready to compete, which in previous seasons it wasn’t as such.

As both the men’s and women’s teams break for the winter recess, the teams will return on Jan. 16 for the NYC Gotham Cup on Staten Island. Looking forward, each team has weekly events after the season starts, heading into the UAA Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1, followed by the NCAA Indoor Championships on Mar. 13 and 14. The teams will round out the season at the UAA Outdoor Championships on Apr. 25 and 26  and NCAA Outdoor Championships on May 21, 22 and 23.

“I always say that track and field is an individual sport disguised as a team sport, because you can’t really affect how another person on your team is doing,” Aravena said. “Having a few individual performances that do stand out would absolutely be ideal, because it shows that people have been putting in the work and we were still there to support them.”

Contact Naseem Rahman at [email protected].