The Amherst indoor track season opened this weekend, with both the men’s and women’s teams competing at the Smith Winter Classic.

The men’s side was highlighted by strong performances from Nick Codola ’15 and Jamie Sandel ’17.

Codola earned the Jeffs’ lone first place finish on the day, finishing the 600-meter run in 1:23.65. Sandel followed closely behind, finishing fifth with a mark of 1:26.47.

Both were also members of the 4x400 relay team along with first-years David Ingraham and Harrison Haigood. The unit earned fourth-place, crossing the line at 3:35.09.

Numerous first-years dominated in other races as Ingraham placed second overall in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.85 and Haigood finished close behind in fifth at 54.31. Fellow first-year Josh Ewin also nabbed a top-10 finish, coming in ninth with a time of 55.93.

Khalil Flemming ’16 was the star in the field events for the Jeffs. Flemming earned fourth-place finishes in both the long jump and triple jump, posting a mark of 6.20 meters in the long and an impressive 12.27 meters in the triple.

On the women’s side, the Jeffs saw similar success. Kiana Herold ’17 stole the show, winning the high jump with a leap of 1.65 meters, finishing sixth in the 600 meter with a time of 1:53.81 and finishing ninth in the long jump (4.88 m) to pull in a whopping three top-10 finishes for the Jeffs.

Similarly to the men’s side, the first-years also contributed greatly to Amherst’s success on the day. Danielle Griffin finished fourth in the 400 meter, seventh in the triple jump and 10th in hte long jump. Abbey Asare-Bediako placed fifth overall in the triple jump and classmate Becki Golia finished sixth in the high jump competition.

To close out the top finishers for the Jeffs, Taylor Summers ’16 placed sixth in the 60-meter dash and seventh in the long jump while Sarah Whelan ’17 took eighth in the 400 meter dash.

“After a long preseason, we were all excited for our track season to get started,” Summer said of the weekend.

“I was impressed by all the talent we have on our team, old and new, and it looks like it’s going to be a fun and exciting season. We’re looking forward to starting off interterm with our meet at Wesleyan,” she added.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will enjoy a long break before kicking off interterm action with the Little Three Championship hosted at Wesleyan. The meet will take place on Saturday, Jan 17.