A New Era Leads The Way Ahead Of The Track & Field 2022-23 Season
11/26/2022
We are officially one week away from hearing “On your mark, get set, GO” as the University of Delaware track & field team will open the 2022-23 campaign competing at Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, hosted by Boston University on Saturday, Dec. 3.
Delaware will enter the season with 42 returning members who led the Blue Hens to a second-place finish at the 2022 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Outdoor Track & Field Championship a year ago. Head coach Kenyetta Iyevbele, who will be making her debut on the track sidelines in her new role of head coach, welcomes a recruiting class of 15 to form a roster of 57 student-athletes eager to lead the program to its third CAA Outdoor title and capture its first CAA Indoor trophy. Joining her on the sidelines in her first season serving as associate head coach is Melanie Heslop and assistant coach Ryan Carter enters his first season.
Track is BACK!! First day of practice is in the ?? pic.twitter.com/UFpor3SZQo
— Delaware Track & Field/Cross Country (@DelawareTFXC) September 19, 2022
“The team has put in lots of hard work during preseason. The hill repeats and stadium work, speed endurance training, and strength and conditioning the past few months has set us up well leading into the upcoming indoor season. During cross country, we were able to build a strong base that’ll also translate over to the track well for us. We’ve recognized our values and talked about what it is we want to celebrate this season. Creating and maintaining habits that will allow us to achieve our goals are a couple of the things we look forward to celebrating. Let’s GO HENS!”Kenyetta Iyevbele, Head Track & Field Coach
Season Outlook
- This season will feature for the first-time ever a CAA Indoor Track & Field Championship. During last year's indoor season, Alicia Lehman-Woodyard headlined the pentathlon event with a personal best and is currently UD's all-time leader with 3305 points at the Frank Colden Invitational and Aja Davis set a new school record time of 7.57 in the 60 meter dash finals at the ECAC Indoor Championships.
- Delaware will look to build on their sensational performance last season at the CAA Outdoor Championships where the Blue Hens finished in second place, racking up 15 medals (four gold, nine silver and two bronze medals). The championship was headlined by impressive performances by the meet's Most Outstanding Field Athlete Megan Albamonti along with Halima Scott and the 4x100 relay team.
- Albamonti will be leading the charge for Delaware in the javelin with a personal-, meet- and new program record of 55.78m, a mark she set at the CAA Outdoor championships a season ago. The Westerly, R.I. native was able to secure a spot in the NCAA East Preliminaries and USA Outdoor Track & Field to round out the Blue Hens impressive campaign.
- Following Albamonti is Chioma Njoku, who will be taking the lead in the hammer throw. The Newark, Del. native enters the campaign with the school record throw of 57.63m, a mark that she set at the CAA Outdoor championship to earn silver medals.
- Scott will be pacing the Blue Hens in the 200m and 400m and will look to use the momentum from her championship performance last season. The Camden, N.J. native was crowned champion in the 400m with a time of 54.19 and earned the silver hardware in the 200m with a time of 24.41 and bronze with the 4x400m relay team that included Lehman-Woodyard with a time of 3:49.30.
- Davis and Trinity Tapper will look to continue to make their mark on the Blue Hens’ scoring as both were part of the gold medal 4x100 relay team at the championships. The realy team, which also consisted of Kamylin Padgham and Shylehn Ebuenga-Smith, won the race with a school record time of 45.68.
- Davis and Tapper both showed out in the 100m prelims to open the IC4A/ECAC Outdoor Championships last season. Davis obliterated her personal-best time and set a new school record with a time of 11.58 to win the race and qualify for the finals. Tapper followed with a PB time of 11.88 to move to fourth place in program history. In the finals, Davis finished in second place with a time of 11.81 and Tapper crossed the line in fourth place with a time of 12.05.
- Sarah Daniels captured bronze for the Blue Hens after running the 10,000m in 35:26.85. Daniels' time now ranks fifth in school history.
- Lehman-Woodyard leaped a personal-best 5.86m in the long jump to capture silver medals at CAA Outdoor Championships.
- Destiny DeBlock earned silver medals at last year's CAA Outdoor Championships after setting a personal-best mark of 4,382 points in the heptathlon, which now sits fifth in school history.
- Carly Schmidt ran the 400m hurdles with a personal-best time of 1:03.47 to earn silver medals at the CAA Outdoor Championships, which is 10th in program history.
Schedule
The Blue Hens are set to compete in six indoor and 11 outdoor events, highlighted by hosting the Delaware Invitational this upcoming season.
Indoor
Delaware will open its lone indoor event of the 2022 calendar year on Dec. 3 at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, hosted by Boston University. The Blue Hens will open the new year at Lions Indoor Invitational in New York on Saturday, Jan. 14. UD will then head to State College, Pa. and compete at the Penn State National on Jan. 27-28 to close out January's slate. Delaware will spend some time in New York on Feb. 3-4 at Rutgers Invitational and then again at the Big Apple Invitational on Feb. 11.
The Blue Hens will close out the indoor campaign at the first-ever Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Indoor Championships Feb. 22-23 in Virginia Beach, Va.
Outdoor
The outdoor season will start on Saturday, Mar. 4 in Wilmington, N.C. as the Blue Hens will compete at conference foe UNCW Invitational and then participate in the Richmond Invitational on Mar. 17 in Richmond, Va. Delaware will look to show out at back-to-back relays, first at the three-day Raleigh Relays hosted by NC State in Raleigh, N.C. Mar. 23-25 and the head over to Austin, Texas to compete at the reputable Texas Relays Mar. 29-Apr. 1. The Blue & Gold will return to the East coast Apr. 7 and compete at Temple Women's Invitational in Philadelphia, followed by Larry Ellis Invitational, hosted by Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. (Apr. 14-15) and then head to Charlottesville, Va. for Virginia Challenge, hosted by UVA on Apr. 21-22. The Blue Hens will close out the regular season at the prestigious Penn Relays Apr. 27-29 and will play host on Apr. 28 at the Delaware Invitational, an event that makes a return to Newark since 2019.
The CAA Outdoor Championships will be held on May 5-6 in Williamsburg, Va. hosted by William & Mary and the ECAC Outdoor Championships will take place May 13-14.
On your ????????, get ??????, ???? ???????
— Delaware Track & Field/Cross Country (@DelawareTFXC) November 3, 2022
??: https://t.co/LumZbz9D0g pic.twitter.com/oG5pDzzVxv
