The Fordham track and field team found gold at the finish line five times this past weekend at the 2025 indoor Atlantic 10 Championships (A10). Both the women’s and men’s track and field teams competed at the A10 Championship, returning home to the Bronx with five gold medals, one silver and four bronze.
The men’s track and field team took home the fourth place finish as a team with 87 points. This year’s finish is the best since 2018, and the men returned to New York with the most points scored since 2012. The women’s team finished in eighth with 35.5 points, their best team finish at a championship since 2011.
Aside from putting up better numbers than in previous years, for sophomore Sean Reidy, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill (GSBRH) ’27, the team brought an incredible supportive energy to this year’s A10s.
“The team was amazing this year, one of the strongest rosters we’ve brought to a conference meet,” Reidy wrote. “From the gun everybody brought the energy, cheering each other on and congratulating everyone. It felt like a complete 180 from past meets where we haven’t performed well. Great vibes all around.”
Both the women’s and men’s track and field teams competed at the A10 Championship, returning home to the Bronx with five gold medals, one silver and four bronze.
First-year Njam Abdul-Latif, GSBRH ’28, continued his record-breaking season by picking up two gold medals and being named the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer of the championships.
Abdul-Latif’s first gold medal finish was in the 60-meter dash, where he took first by .003 seconds, running a school record time of 6.81 seconds. The other first-place finish was in the 200-meter dash, where he set an A10 meet record with 21.17 seconds.
Katarina Birimac, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) ’25, also came away with two medals. She became the A10 champion and the first Ram to win the event, with her season-best time of 16:36.06 in the 5,000-meter run. Birimac picked up her second medal with her third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run, with a final time of 9:46.26.
One other Ram came home with two gold medals, distance runner Rodolfo Sanchez, GSBRH ’25, took first place in the mile run and the distance medley relay. The mile run was a 1-2 finish for Fordham with Sanchez’s 4:09.46 gold medal finish right ahead of Reidy’s silver medal finish of 4:09.50.
The mile-running duo was part of the gold-winning distance medley relay, made up of Sanchez, Reidy, Nathaniel Bezuneh, GSBRH ’25, and Dakota Strain, GSBRH ’27. Along with their gold medals the Rams took home First Team All-Atlantic 10 honors, with their season-best time of 9:52.44. This relay ran a stunning race making a comeback from previous years’ championship performances.
“(I was) absolutely stoked. We came up short last year getting 4th, so we have definitely had this circled on our calendars for a while,” Bezuneh wrote. “We led the race from the first leg to the finish and It felt great to execute our plan perfectly and be at the top of that podium.”
The relay was a comeback from the team’s performance from previous years, but for Strain, he said it was also a redemption from an unfortunate disqualification earlier in the day.
“Earlier in the day, I unfortunately false-started in the 200 and was disqualified. I was extremely disappointed in myself. I felt like I had let both myself and my team down. After that, my coach put me into the DMR (distance medley relay) to give me a chance to redeem myself, and it could not have gone any better. That win was exactly what I needed to pick myself back up mentally after the DQ,” Strain wrote.
The Rams found themselves on the podium once again with the three more events scoring the bronze. Zoe Arakelian, GSBRH ’26, tied for a bronze medal after clearing 5’5″ in the high jump. Sam Freeman, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’27, took third in the 500-meter run with a season-best time of 1:04.23. The men’s 800-meter relay ran a season-best time of 7:35.12, which sent Reidy, Sanchez, Ben Bochers, FCRH ’26, and Aidan Hickey, Gabelli Graduate School of Business ’25, all home with another bronze medal.
“The progress that this team has made over the past 3.5 years is pretty wild. My freshman year we were one of the lower scoring teams and for us (men’s track and field team) to be placing 4th today is amazing to see and be a part of.” Nathaniel Bezuneh, GSBRH ’25
The Rams had a lot of success during the two-day Championship and at every moment that Fordham had an athlete competing there was a fellow Ram cheering them on.
“The team environment was phenomenal. There wasn’t a single moment when a Fordham athlete was on the track without someone cheering or showing support,” Strain wrote.
Along with the athletes who made it onto the podium, the Rams posted some of their season-best times at the A10 Championships. Leia Ruvo, FCRH ’26, set a season-best in the pentathlon with 3,437 points. Her best finishes in the event were high jump (third, with 5’4½”), 800 meters (fourth, with 2:27.49), and long jump (fifth, with 17’4¾”). DaRon Elam, GSBRH ’27, also ran a season-best mark of 8.49 in the 60-meter hurdles.
Several women’s relays also finished out the indoor season with season-best times. Brenna Sears, FCRH ’27, Kathleen Keefe, FCRH ’28, Cate Roche, FCRH ’27, and Megan McCann, FCRH ’27, ran a 9:23.80. The 400-meter relay including graduate student Michele Daye, GSAS, and juniors, FCRH ’26, Dillyn Green, Kylie Ritz and Alexandra Williams, ran a 3:51.37. The final relay, which ran a season-best time of 12:04.61, was the distance medley relay, run by Green, Sears, Sophia Olivia, FCRH ’28, and Meredith Gotzam, FCRH ’26.
The Fordham track and field team had some incredible podium finishes at the indoor championships, and they capitalized on the opportunity to continue to push themselves to run their best race. Bezuneh reflected on how the growth he has seen from the team this year started when he first joined the team four years ago as first-year.
“The progress that this team has made over the past 3.5 years is pretty wild. My freshman year we were one of the lower scoring teams and for us (men’s track and field team) to be placing 4th today is amazing to see and be a part of. I’ve made some of my best friends on this team and it was great to end off my indoor a10 career with such an amazing squad,” Bezuneh wrote.
Brian Horowitz, track and field head coach, praised the team for their “physical hard work” and the “positive team environment” at this year’s A10s.
“I’m incredibly proud of the team,” Horowitz wrote. “I couldn’t be happier for all of them and their performances.”
The Rams now look to the final championship of the indoor season, the Eastern College Athletic Conference and Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Championship, which will be from March 7 to March 9 in Boston.
