Courtesy of Bowdoin Athletics

Over spring break, several members of the track and field team competed in the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships in Rochester, N.Y. The Polar Bears raked in some impressive results and awards during the event before heading back to Brunswick to start the outdoor season.

On the men’s side, the distance medley relay (DMR) team was seeded eighth but earned an All-American title with a sixth-place finish. Matthew Servin ’26, Adepoju Arogundade ’25, Oliver Brandes ’27 and Will Goddard ’25 ran 9:56.39 to bring home the trophy. They moved up one spot during the second leg, two on the third and another two on the final stretch of the race.

“[The race] is a major accomplishment, and I think that doing it as a relay team versus individually makes it so much more fulfilling,” Servin wrote in an email to the Orient. “This was the first NCAA championship for three of the four members on the relay team.”

Since the championship is the highest level of competition offered for the indoor track season, there was a smaller cohort who attended.

“Spending so much time together during the week leading up to competition and the weekend at the venue brought us together so much that it distracted us from a lot of the nerves going into the race. We had honestly been talking about sending a DMR team to Nationals since the fall and so to actually get it done and do well was very fulfilling,” Servin wrote.

Similarly, Arogundade attributed a lot of his success to his teammates.

“We’ve all run our legs [of the race] before, and we’ve run the DMR two times as a spot, so I think it’s just really focusing on what we need to do as individuals, and then trusting in each other to get the job done. We had a lot of chemistry going into the meet from hanging out in the hotel, but also being able to have those individual practices in the week leading up to Nationals. I think my mindset was just to let our bodies do the work and trust in the outcome,” Arogundade said.

Individually,  Kane Demers ’26,  was named Second Team All-American after getting 13th in the 200m and 19th in the 60m hurdles.

“[I want to take the] mindset of remaining competitive no matter where you’re at in the season [to the outdoor season],” Demers said. “It’s pretty easy in the beginning of the season to say, ‘Oh, you know, we have a lot of meets, and it’s okay if I’m not on my game,’ but I think it’s important to stack those experiences on top of each other…. No matter where you are or what meet you’re at, or who you’re competing against, you’re always locked in and focused on being successful.”

Similarly, on the women’s side, Kennedy Kirkland ’27 earned a sixth-place finish in the long jump. She jumped 5.74m on her second attempt to earn the All-American title. Kirkland also finished 16th in the 200m with a time of 25.25 to receive the Second Team All-American title.

Kirkland commented on how she realized she was the only woman to represent Bowdoin at the meet.

“I was looking around the table, and I’m like, ‘Oh.’ I really didn’t notice it that much until my coach pointed it out, but I really loved the environment of my teammates. Yeah, I think it was just, ‘Wow, I’m really representing the people on my team.’ But I was really excited for the opportunity to be able to do that,” Kirkland said.”

Heading into the event, Kirkland noted the nerves she felt, given the high level of competition.

“I was definitely really nervous,” Kirkland said. “I know that before I got this crazy feeling like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ But it was only until my dad came, and I gave him a big hug that it actually went away. So I was pretty nervous going into it, but my mindset was really just to be able to compete as much as I can. And I was just really happy to have the opportunity to be there among so many amazing people.”

Since the indoor championships, the competitors have immediately rolled into the outdoor track and field season. Competitors such as Kirkland have had a strong start. She jumped the Division III third all-time record of 6.28m for the long jump and a 200m time of 24.91 to get a second all-time program record at the Wesleyan Invitational last weekend.

“I was really confident,” Kirkland said. “I’m glad that it worked out. I could have never imagined or dreamed of that kind of jump.”