MEDFORD, MA (January 15, 2026) – Led by a group of young and talented returnees, the Tufts University women's track & field team is well-suited to continue its return to prominence in the 2025-26 season.
Last year, the Jumbo season included a national championship won by triple jumper
Elysse Cumberland indoors. Cumberland's classmates
Arielle Chechile in the hurdles and
Makayla Moriarty in the 400 meters, along with junior
Jackie Wells in the javelin, also gained NCAA experience early in their careers and will look to put that to use as team leaders.
Eighteen newcomers will join the returnees as the Jumbos seek to compete for more conference and regional titles while increasing its group of national qualifiers. Last year's team earned a top-20 team at the NCAA indoor meet, then won its first-ever New England Division III Championship outdoors. This year's group will strive for more.
The Jumbos, who had a handful of athletes in action to start the year at Boston University in December, will host the annual Branwen Smith-King Invitational on Saturday to truly kick off indoor action.
"We return some really heavy-hitters on the women's side," said head coach of track & field
Kristen Morwick. "Top 10 is for sure a goal in the NCAA's. Win New England's, win NESCAC's, those should be fair expectations of ours. Having Elysse and some others back makes that a lot more possible, and we should also be better in some other events, particularly relays, with the addition of some very good freshmen."
Here's a closer look at the team by event:
SPRINTS – With
Simisola Lawal and
Makayla Moriarty returning, Tufts has a dynamic duo at the top of their sprints group. Last year Lawal became #2 all-time at Tufts with her marks in the 60-meter dash indoors and 100-meter dash outdoors. Moriarty had a great first season with the Jumbos in 2025. The school record holder in the outdoor 400, she won the event at the NESCAC Championships last spring and qualified for NCAA's. She's also #2 at Tufts in the outdoor 200 and tied for third in the 100. Leaders of other events such as sophomores
Arielle Chechile,
Elysse Cumberland and
Lauren Zipoli can make key championship meet contributions here.
MID-DISTANCE – Sophomore
Phoebe Bryar, who was the New England Division III outdoor runner-up in the 800 meters last year, and is ranked #4 in the event for the Jumbos all-time, leads this group of returnees. A major influx of newcomers will look to shore up the team in these positions. More will also be expected from this group's returning depth, which includes seniors
Lexi Dean and
Julia Dolce along with juniors
Sonia Olson and
Kaya West.
DISTANCE – Senior
Liz Donahue, coming off an All-American performance in cross country, is at the front of the team's distance performers in track. Indoors she's top 10 on the team for both the 3,000 and 5,000, where she's #4, and outdoors she has all-time marks in the 5,000 and 10,000. This group is bolstered by other members of the cross country squad, which placed 11th nationally in the fall, including sophomores
Zoe Margolies and
Samara McVey as well as seniors
Grace Ogden and
Vivian Lau. Dean returns as the team's top performer in the 3,000-meter steeplechase during the outdoor season.
HURDLES – Chechile returns as one of the better all-around athletes in the region, with the hurdles as her featured event. She was fifth in the 400-meter hurdles preliminaries at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships before an unfortunate fall in the final. She also earned All-Conference honors in the event at the NESCAC meet. Sophomore classmate
Cameron Stanton has a Tufts top 10 standing in the 60-meter hurdles indoors. Zipoli recorded the top Tufts times in the 100-meter hurdles outdoors last spring, while Janssen and junior
Tessa Player are among the others who add to the mix.
JUMPS / VAULT – Cumberland burst onto the scene last year by winning the NCAA Championship in the triple jump indoors at her first national championship meet. Her outstanding debut includes breaking the school records for the indoor triple jump and the outdoor long and triple jumps. She was also the NESCAC long jump champion. Junior
Nora Jean-Jacques represented the Jumbos in both events at championship meets last year. Junior
Lexi King in the high jump, where she's #5 in Tufts history indoors, will look to continue her progress in 2026. A promising group of returning pole vaulters includes juniors
Emma Gall and
Lena Tang as well as sophomore
Natalie Germanov, who could also see significant improvement this season.
THROWS – Wells has built an impressive list of accomplishments in the javelin throw. She holds the Tufts school record by a wide margin, earned second team All-American honors in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last spring finishing 16th and had runner-up finishes at both the conference and regional meets. Sophomore
Mia Kurtz earned an All-Conference award in her first season with a third in the shot put. Classmate
Julia Saporito did the same in the discus throw. Junior
Ceci LaBarge had a top 35 mark in the hammer outdoors. Classmates
Britney Lu and
Nicole Kuhl along with sophomore
Harper Danforth will look to make contributions here as well.
RELAYS –Chechile, Cumberland, Lawal and Moriarty return from relays that made Tufts history last year. With that, the Jumbos have the core of what could be some very exciting foursomes this year. Indoor, Moriarty and Chechile were part of a 4x400-meter relay that set a new school record and placed 10th at the NCAA Championship meet. Outdoors, Chechile, Lawal, Moriarty and Cumberland broke the school's 4x100-meter relay record, while Moriarty and Chechile were half of a record-setting 4x4 in the spring. For the 4x800-meters, sophomore
Avery Kerr, Elie and West helped establish the fifth-fastest indoor foursome in team history. Bryar, Dean, sophomore
Eleanor Whitehouse and Elie are the top returnees to the distance medley relay.
MULTI – Player won the New England Division III heptathlon title in the spring, while Chechile earned the #2 ranking at Tufts for the pentathlon indoors. Zipoli, who was third behind Player in the New England D3 heptathlon, also shows strong potential here.
--JUMBOS--
