Elite is what the Quakers were at this past weekend’s Penn 10 Elite track meet.
After a record-breaking weekend at the Quaker Invitational, there were high expectations for Penn track and field at the Penn 10 Elite, and the team delivered. The Quakers' success was highlighted by a broken program record by sophomore sprinter Ryan Matulonis — the team's third program record broken in two weeks.
The Penn 10 Elite meet gathered 10 schools to compete in 30 events in the new Ott Center, which was opened just this past November. The 10 schools included Penn, Brown, Connecticut, Cornell, Harvard, Howard, Penn State, Princeton, Villanova, and Virginia. In addition to the collegiate athletes, there were athletes representing private track clubs including Liberty TC, Nike, and GRC Tracksmith. This was all topped off by a group of national team members including one athlete from Canada, one representative from Ireland, and four athletes competing for the USA.
In the face of high expectations and tough competition, Penn put out a strong performance — notably faring better on the track than on the field. The most notable result of the day was from Ryan Matulonis. He broke the program record for the 400-meter in a time of 47.61 — good for the second-fastest time in the Ivy League this season. Matulonis ultimately finished fourth in the event, earning him the #49 spot on the 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Rankings for the 400m.
“I’m very happy with [my performance],” Matulonis said. “Going into the race … I wanted to go and break the school record; that was my goal that I was going for, and I ended up running and breaking it by about a tenth of a second.”
Penn also found some victory in the women’s 400m. Senior sprinter Jocelyn Niemiec finished fourth overall with a time of 54.54. Niemiec also ran the second leg of the women’s 4x400 relay alongside her teammates junior sprinter Moforehan Abinusawa, sophomore sprinter and hurdler Amelia Kristen, and freshman sprinter Milan Ramey. The four athletes recorded a season-best time of 3:43.33 — finishing in third place overall.
To the average spectator, Niemiec’s performances are nothing short of incredible, especially given that she —along with the rest of the team — races every weekend. However, the sprinter still manages to find fault in her times, though she tries not to be too critical of herself.
“It can just get pretty mentally taxing because it requires a lot of focus, and this week my body felt super tired,” Niemiec reflected. “I was happy with how I did last week, which is why I think I [wouldn’t be] too upset at myself if this week didn’t go great.”
While Niemiec recovered from her race, senior distance runners Bronwyn Patterson and Chloe Hassman lined up for the women’s 800-meter. A regular champion in the 800m, Patterson was favored to perform well. She led the pack for the first three laps of the race until falling behind Cornell in the last 60m — ultimately finishing second at 2:07.30. Her time moved her to #21 on the 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Rankings. Hassman finished fourth behind middle distance runner Annie Jackson of Virginia.
Though disappointed with her time, Patterson sees this result as merely a stepping stone to get her to a higher performance level, calling her race “a good start”.
“The meets have all been ramping up in intensity and quality of performance, so this is just another step [in] helping us get ready for racing in these big leagues in the next few weeks,” Patterson said.
Junior distance runner Nicolas Pizarro finished third in the men’s 800m in 1:50.69 — just missing his personal best by 0.73 seconds. His teammate, senior distance runner Kyle Miller, finished fifth with a time of 1:51.28, and both athletes made it onto the 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Rankings for men’s 800m at #49 and #65, respectively.
15 minutes after Pizarro and Miller stepped off the track, Abinusawa took their place to represent the Quakers in the 200m. The week prior, she was named Ivy League Women’s Athlete of the Week. She finished the 200m in second place in 24.10 seconds — 0.3 seconds behind Harvard's multis, sprints, and hurdles runner Izzy Goudros.
Over in the field section of the Ott Center, the Penn throwers were also finding some success. Senior thrower Scott Dochat broke the 20m barrier in the men’s weight throw finishing with a personal best and season-best mark of 20.08m (65’ 10.5”). This result landed him in fifth place behind athletes from Harvard, Virginia, and Penn State.
“I’ve got a lot to build on, but I can’t really be too upset with it,” he said of his performance. “It was [a] really good competition so I’m happy I was able to rise to the occasion.”
While Niemiec was lining up on the track for the 400m, the men’s team was competing in the pole vault in the middle of the field. Senior vaulter Benedikt Sachta cleared 5.02m (16’ 5.50”) on his first attempt earning him second place, while his teammate, freshman vaulter Alex Georgiev, later took fifth with the same height.
The last event of the day at 6:10pm was the men’s 4x400 relay and the Quakers finished the day with a bang. Penn’s relay team, consisting of freshman sprinter David Davitt, Matulonis, junior sprinter Alec Jackson, and freshman sprinter Jasyn Truitt, placed fourth with a time of 3:13.76, just 0.06 seconds behind Cornell.
Penn track and field team hit the road to next compete at Penn State for the Penn State National from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1.
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