BOSTON, Mass. – The UMass Lowell women's track and field team competed well on day one of the 2026 America East Indoor Track and Field Championships at Boston University's Track & Tennis Center, concluding the day in sixth place with 23 points.

"I thought our women competed really hard," said Head Coach Gary Gardner. "We are very young, so it makes it seemingly more difficult at a venue like this and at championship like this, it makes it a little bit harder, but they competed hard and we had a bunch of personal best today."

Graduate student Fleur Balogh (Grafton, Mass.) highlighted day one with a victory in the pentathlon, earning 3,496 points. With the win, she accumulated 10 points for the team. Freshman Nyrah Joseph (Billerica, Mass.) finished fourth in her first career pentathlon, earning 3,227 points to add five points for the River Hawks.

The pentathlon 60m hurdles kicked it off, as Balogh claimed third with a personal-best 9.10 mark. Joseph finished fifth with a time of 9.33. Next was the high jump, where Balogh tied for first place with a 1.60m leap and Joseph finished tied for third with a 1.57m mark. In the pentathlon shot put, Balogh earned the victory, reaching a personal-best 12.18m mark, while Joseph claimed third with a 10.40m toss. Senior Paige Murphy (Billerica, Mass.) threw well also, finishing in fifth with a 9.63m mark. Balogh earned the win in the pentathlon long jump as well, reaching 5.39m, while Joseph finished in seventh with a 4.90m leap. The pentathlon 800m was the last of the pentathlon, and Joseph led the River Hawks in ninth place with a 2:37.96 mark, before Murphy claimed 10^th place with a 2:38.30 mark and Balogh rounded them out in 12^th with a time of 2:43.77.  

The 1,000m run kicked off the running events for the River Hawks, and it was senior Nubia Pereira (Woburn, Mass.) that led the way in ninth place with a personal-best time of 2:53.82, narrowly missing out on points for the team by one spot. Sophomore Salma Boukhtam (Quincy, Mass.) was not far behind, claiming 14^th place with a personal-best time of 2:56.74.

Junior Jayani Santos (Tewksbury, Mass.) shined in the 400m dash prelims, qualifying for the finals with a first-place finish and 55.29 mark. Senior Danielle Thompson (Groton, Mass.) and junior Bridget Geary (Lowell, Mass.) finished back-to-back in 17^th and 18^th place, respectively, with times of 1:00.29 and 1:00.33, as Geary picked up a personal-best with her effort. In the 500m dash prelims, junior Julie Condon led the team in 11^th place with a personal-best time of 1:19.51.

Two River Hawks finished within the top half of the field in the 5,000m run, as senior Kylie Marion (Baldwinville, Mass.) led the way in ninth place, just missing out on placement points with a time of 17:29.14. Freshman Anna Fondakowski was just behind her in 10^th place with a time of 17:38.36. Senior Mia Jones (Blacksburg, Va.) (16^th, PR – 18:19.76) and senior Miana Caraballo (Methuen, Mass.) (20^th, 18:33.54) also competed for the River Hawks.

The 4,000m DMR rounded out the running events for the day, and the team of senior Raihana Yameogo (Dillsburg, Pa.), junior Emily Burdick (Billerica, Mass.), junior Katharine Cottone (Little Falls, N.J.) and graduate student Sarah Ross (Agawam, Mass.) finished in fifth place with a time of 12:06.46.

In the field events, junior Úna Brice (Cork, Ireland) earned points for the team in the pole vault, finishing tied for fourth place with a 3.30m mark for four points. Sophomore Jaden Kasule (Tewksbury, Mass.) also competed, finishing 12^th with a 3.15m mark.  

Next, the River Hawks will compete on day two of the 2026 America East Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday, February 21.