The Forester track and field team began its outdoor season at North Central College's First Chance Invitational over the weekend.

Friday's competition included the event's Distance Fling and several Lake Forest runners competed in the 1500m. Junior Lettia Hoda was the team's top finisher on the women's side, placing fourth among the event's 43 runners. Her time of 4:58.50 was a career best by nearly two seconds and she still ranks third in program history in the event.

Sophomore Owen Lashenik led the Forester men's 1500m runners and placed 13th out of 68 competitors in the event with a clocking of 4:16.00.

Lake Forest athletes turned in five top-five finishes on Saturday, beginning with the men's 4x100m relay. Senior Mason Wright, junior Shuntaro Nakamura, and freshmen Brayden Long and Christopher Yoon placed fourth in the race but their time of 43.75 seconds broke the previous school record.

Yoon also finished fifth in the 110m hurdles in 16.33 seconds while junior Payton Ross was third with a time of 15.92.

Long added another program record in the 100m, which he finished in just 11.06 seconds to place fifth out of 68 runners.

The Foresters top finish of the weekend came in the men's 800m, where junior Ollie Francis completed two laps around the track in 1:55.89 and in second place.

Other Lake Forest runners to earn a spot in the top five in program history in an event were sophomore Liam Foo in the men's 400m (53.54), junior Zoe Pavlu in the women's 200m (27.96), freshman Joel Chirwa in the men's 200m (23.45), sophomore Farah Tawfik (4.42m) and freshman Rylie Almoradie (4.29m) in the women's long jump, and freshman Sam Sullivan in the women's shot put (8.14m).

The Foresters' next meet will be the Chicagoland Outdoor Championship Meet April 9-11 at Elmhurst University.