The Bard College track and field team completed its 2026 season on Saturday at the Liberty League Championships.

Senior Chloe Desautels comments on entering the second championship day: "Yesterday we set the bar really high, and I'm excited to keep that momentum going. That's the goal." Head Coach Brody Smith on Liberty Leagues: "This conference is most difficult for track and field, but despite that, we are making great improvements compared to last year. I'm really proud of even just how far this team has come from the previous Liberty Leagues." 

Kai Roper finished out her heptathlon today, meaning that she is the first Bard athlete to complete a multi event, and thereby setting a new school record of 2084 points. Her first day ended at 1182, and she made up the remainder in the long jump, javelin throw, and the 800m run. Her long jump measured at 3.5m, her javelin at 11.32, but the 800 was the first-year's money maker today, as she scored 572 points with a 2:40.11 time. Roper finished 11th in the heptathlon, and she will return in cross country to sharpen her aerobic capacity, and prepare for next season's seven. 

Avery Crafton, Kariuki Massio, Aiden Trapp, and Senior James Washington brought home a historic 4x100m for the first race of the day. Crafton is pleased with his performance; due to the wide curves of the Merrick-Pinkard Track, he had to run about 115 meters before an immaculate handoff to Massio. Bard retained the sixth position until the third leg, where Trapp was overtaken on the curve, a disadvantage of running in lane nine. Though Washington closed hard, making up ground on Vassar, Bard finished in 8th, with a time of 45.93, scoring the first point of the weekend. It's the fastest time Bard has run since the 2015 school record. Coach Brody Smith comments on why relay sprint records are so hard to break: "It's just so rare for a program like us to assemble a team of four sprinters; we basically just have to get lucky." 

The long awaited 1500m is Freya Jones's final attempt at the distance, Elijah Flynn's last chance to get under 4:10, and Chloe Desautels' last solo race. Jones and Desautels followed the field through 400m, before getting dropped and pursuing their own splits. Jones found herself at the finish at 5:20.24, followed by Desautels at 5:46.41. It was a gritty race for the two seniors, and Jones' final Bard race in her first Bard season. Desautels prepares to anchor the 4x400m later. 

Flynn took aim at the elusive 4:0x time, and paced in the back of the front pack to secure the mark. Though he stayed through 700, even finding his way through the fray for a time, he was eventually dropped as the leading eight athletes dropped pace going into the last 800 meters. He was left leading a group, executing a powerful kick into the finish for 4:11.34. He has been working on new race strategies to complement his strength-running style, which he will have to wait for the 2026 cross country season to debut. 

The 5000m is the most coveted race in Liberty Leagues; the most recruited for, the most fiercely competed for, it is where last year's senior Clemente Esponilla cemented himself in Bard history. Flynn chased that 15:46.56 mark today, having come close at Albany, but missing it by nine seconds. He is led out fast by a hungry field that includes the 2025 indoor mile national champion, and expectedly gets dropped around a kilometre in. He paced with a Union athlete, who he overtook in the final 800m, opening up a fifty meter gap by the time he closed in 16:14.37. 

Today, Charlie Grenadier had a great performance in the 5000m. He opened with the field, coming through 200 in the middle of the pack, and then he let the rest of the field pass him in order to start splitting his goal laps. Calvin Thomas, Bo Hopwood, and Jones sit on the grass with a stopwatch, timing his laps. After he comes through two miles, Thomas incredulously states "he might go, like, 17:30." Grenadier's previous personal best was 18:01, which he ran just two weeks prior at Albany. Today, something was markedly different. He mechanically stayed on 1:25 laps, closing his thirteenth in 1:20.84 to claim a new personal best of 17:29.72, a 32 second personal best. 

Alex Laskowski had to push hard for her 5k today, as she quickly found herself all alone. With support from her teammates, she finished in 22:01.24, nineteen seconds from her personal
best. She has three years to improve these marks, and finishes her incredibly promising first year as a pillar of team culture and a decorated Bard athlete. She'll aim for the 3000m indoors, and continue on the 1500/5000 double outdoors. 

In the shot put, McKenna Reeves threw well, but it was Eanna Hauck who put on the show everyone has come to expect. Reeves ended her day at 8.27m, which came on her third and final attempt. Hauck clinched a spot in the finals through a nail-biter second flight. Bard huddled in the tent to watch athlete after athlete fail to push her out of the top eight, though many came close. On her third throw, she had ripped an 11.2 meter push, putting her in seventh with a new personal best and school record. Unfortunately, she would not improve this mark through finals, as her three extra throws fell short of her previous mark. Hauck ends the day with a medal, taking eighth place in the shot put, taking time to dab on the podium as Bard cheers for their standout first-year thrower. Hauck's 8th place finish is the best finish by a Bard women's field athlete since Kelsey O'Brien finished 7th in the javelin in 2017.

Bard had three athletes in the discus, Johnny Henriquez, who qualified for decathlon but decided to not compete for load management, Lismery Guzman-Cruz, and Reeves. Henriquez threw 23.13m on his second attempt, coming within a meter of his personal best. Guzman-Cruz got to 18.74m on her first attempt, and Reeves finished her Bard career with a 20.44m throw. 

Olamipo Ogunleye continues on his long jump conquest, this time marking a 4.85m attempt in the sand. From Ogunleye: "I am proud of my personal bests, and I'm giving myself grace because I started a few weeks ago. Practicing long jump is when I first started to feel the competitive drive in Track and Field." He has reached the halfway point of his collegiate career, and looks towards all manner of jumping events: long, high, triple, pole-assisted, in the future. 

The long awaited relays are Bard's main source of points; each team, by virtue of only being able to enter one lineup, is guaranteed to score at least one point. After the 5k, all that remained was two 4x400m heats, men's and women's. At the 2026 Indoor Liberty Leagues, the Bard women's 4x400m team scored over Union, so all eyes were on Carina Cooke, Loie Acton, Ava Gregory, and Desautels to deliver a performance. Cooke and Acton started the race off hot,but still trailing, as Gregory received the baton at 2:09.29. Neither Gregory nor Desautels were able to make up the deficit, but the team finished with a new school record 4:25.63. 

The stars have aligned for this year's men's 4x400m, as the constituent parts have seemingly appeared out of nowhere throughout the season. Trapp started the team out, in lane nine, and delivered the baton to Washington in last place. Washington made up some ground, but not all of it, as Massio took charge with 1:49.13 on the clock. Massio split a 54.94, and positioned Andrii Roienko, who took the team home in a cumulative 3:42.57. 

This marks the end of Bard's 2026 Track and Field season. Able to mix in with some of Liberty Leagues' top brass, the team takes the experience in stride, and looks toward next year. It was the final season of Bo Hopwood, Chloe Desautels and Carina Cooke, and of senior newcomers James Washington, McKenna Reeves, Freya Jones. Bard returns in the Fall of 2026 for Cross Country.

Women
Heptathlon
Kai Roper 2084

Heptathlon 800m
Kai Roper 2:40.11

Heptathlon Long Jump
Kai Roper 3.50 (11-5 ¾) PR

Heptathlon Javelin
Kai Roper 11.32 (37-2) PR

1500m
Freya Jones 5:20.24
Chloe Desautels 5:46.41

5000m
Alex Laskowski 22:01.24

4x400m
Cooke, Desautels, Acton, Gregory 4:25.63 School Record

Shotput
8. Eanna Hauck 11.20 (36-9) School Record, PR
McKenna Reeves 8.27 (27-1 ¾) 

Discus
McKenna Reeves 20.44 (67-1)
Lismery Guzman-Cruz 18.74 (61-6) PR

Men
4x100
Crafton, Massio, Roienko, James Washington 45.93

1500m
Elijah Flynn 4:11.34

5000m
Elijah Flynn 16:14.37
Charlie Grenadier 17:29.72 PR

4x400m
Roienko, Massio, Trapp, James Washington 3:42.57

Discus
Johnny Henriquez 23.13 (75-10)