Hi readers! Welcome back! I’m going to share with you what a typical track competition is like for me as a member of the Amherst College Track and Field team.
As an athlete for the Amherst track and field team, there is a significant amount of time spent on the weekends traveling to, from, and competing at track meets. It is a very fun way to get off of campus for a day, and compete against other track and field teams in the NESCAC and other Division III programs.
This past weekend, I traveled with the track team to Boston, MA to compete at the 2025 Boston University (BU) David Henry Valentine Invitational. The BU meet is a high profile meet in which not only Division III, but Division I and professional athletes compete. Olympic champion Grant Fisher, for example, ran a world record race in the 5000-meter at the meet on Friday afternoon!
I was competing in the 400-meter dash and the 200-meter dash at this meet with some of my teammates who were running the same events. Because there are so many individuals competing at this event, the male competitors ran on Friday and the female competitors ran on Saturday. The women were competing early in the morning, so I was part of the cohort which left campus Friday evening and stayed overnight in a hotel to compete early Saturday morning. This was my first overnight trip, and it was a blast!
On Friday evening we left at 6:30 P.M. on a Peter Pan Bus, the classic green buses that are seen around the northeast. We arrived at our hotel around 8:00 P.M., and once there, we received our room and roommate designations for the night. I then finished some homework, talked with some teammates, and went to bed. We left the hotel around 7:30 A.M. for the track in order to warm up and prepare for our races. Once I finished racing, I stayed at the meet and cheered on my teammates! We finally ended up getting back to campus around 8:30 P.M.
As you can see, attending a track meet is a busy and time-consuming event, but it is also very fulfilling and fun! As a Division III athlete, you have to learn how to balance demanding academics along with your athletics. It is not always an easy feat, but relying on your teammates, family, and academic resources for support are great ways to remain in control of being a student athlete.
I am very grateful to be a member of the athletics program at Amherst College, which I recently learned is the oldest athletics program in the nation! It is a great way to stay in shape, build community, and travel off of campus. If you are considering being an athlete at Amherst College, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Go Mammoths!
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about Amherst, or would like to talk further, email me at cjaeger27@amherst.edu!