Hunter College senior Mateo Penafiel will certainly leave behind a legacy with the Hawks’ cross country and track and field programs.  A four-year member of both programs, Penafiel has been active for three seasons for all four years, ever since he stepped onto campus.

A distance runner in track and field, he has been a four-time All-Conference performer in indoor track and field and a three-time All-Conference winner in outdoor track and field.  Recently, he capped his career at the Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a win in the men’s 5000-meter race and a second place finish in the 1,500, helping the Hawks to their first outdoor title since 2008. During the 2026 indoor campaign, he anchored Hunter’s winning distance medley relay team and captured gold in the 3000-meter run.

However, his star has shined brightest on the cross country course.  Penafiel was the Championship MVP after taking first in 2024, the conference Rookie of the Year in 2022 and the Performer of the Year this past fall.  He is a four-time All-Conference team member, recording three runner-up finishes at the conference meet in addition to his win as a junior. During his career, the Hawks captured the conference men’s cross country crown in each of his four seasons.

As a Nursing major in Hunter’s Bellevue School of Nursing, Penafiel carries a 3.82 grade point average while also gaining plenty of experience in the field.  This spring, he has been in the gerontological nursing rotation  at the Carter Burden Covello nursing home as well as the immersion clinical rotation at New York Presbyterian.  He has also completed several other professional experiences in the nursing field, including with NY Harbor Healthcare and as a Nurse Extern with Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn.

As a junior, Mateo served as the HBSNA Communications Director for the Bellevue School of Nursing.  He has also served as a volunteer at the Metro Christian Center, distributing food to disadvantaged communities.

The Queens native has been a member of the Dean’s List and a CUNYAC semester scholar-athlete for each of his seven semesters. Mateo is also bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish.