NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Junior Daegan Cutter (San Anselmo, Calif.) has been elected captain of the Yale men's cross country team for the 2026 season. Cutter was chosen via a team vote and was introduced as captain at the season-ending banquet Dec. 5.
 
For Cutter, who lives with eight of his teammates, the chance to lead the team as captain is deeply meaningful. He is part of a rising senior class that also includes Antonio Bravo (Old Greenwich, Conn.), Jack Diaz (Casper, Wyo.), Amaré Fields (Seattle, Wash.), Brian Gamble (Boston, Mass.), Ronan Luff (New York, N.Y.), Caden Montini (Gainesville, Fla.), Benny Seidman (Eugene, Ore.), Guy Stevens (Odiham, England) and Liam Sullivan (Norfolk, Va.).
 
"I am so excited and honored to be chosen as a leader of this group of guys whom I love so much," said Cutter. "I have seen how much time and effort every single member of this team puts into making it the best it possibly can be. I hope that I can pay back a fraction of what this team has given me through my leadership as captain."
 
Cutter was one of Yale's most consistent runners this year, placing third on the team in each of the last four races – including the Ivy League Heptagonal Cross Country Championships, where he was 22nd overall with an 8K time of 25:23.4. He also was third for Yale at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships, where he was 41st overall with a 10K time of 30:24.2. 
 
Cutter has competed at Heps and Regionals every year of his career. He has helped the Bulldogs to back-to-back fifth-place finishes at NCAA Regionals, the first time since 2003-04 that Yale has finished in the top five in back-to-back years.
 
"In terms of expectations for next season, I think the team wants to continue improving our placements at Heps and regionals," said Cutter. "We are losing a lot of great seniors, but we are also returning a group of hungry guys with incredibly high potential and adding an exciting freshman class." 
 
Also a member of Yale's track and field team, Cutter points to a moment from last year's indoor track and field season as one of his most memorable moments with the Bulldogs. He watched four of his teammates win the distance medley relay at the Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships.
 
"It's hard to pick out one moment but I think the most excited I have ever been watching a sporting event was watching the distance medley relay at last year's indoor Ivy League championship," said Cutter. "Our team took first place in an absolutely electric race with a loaded field. In cross country I have never really been able to be a spectator for the team and it was so fun to watch the guys give everything they had and get the W." 
 
A statistics and data science major, Cutter just got accepted into Yale's BA-BS/MPH 5-Year Program in Public Health. As part of that program, he will start graduate classes next year and spend one additional year (2027-28) to obtain a master's degree in public health with a concentration in biostatistics in addition to his undergraduate degree.
 
Cutter spent this fall working as a data science intern at Khushi Baby, a digital health non-profit with expertise in building solutions for health departments. He learned about that company last summer while taking part in Big Data Summer Immersion at Yale, an intensive, interdisciplinary six-week program that equips undergraduate students with the skills to utilize the power of big data for human health.
 
Cutter is a graduate of Redwood High School, where he was a two-time North Coast Section Division 2 cross country champion. Since August of 2020 he has performed more than 800 volunteer hours with Marin County Search and Rescue.