COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – All eyes will be on Collegeville this weekend as the Centennial Conference outdoor championship makes its return to Patterson Field, and the Ursinus College track and field teams hope to mix in some home cookin' to their efforts to ascend the league ladder.
Having hosted the last three CC indoor championships, Ursinus is the site of the outdoor meet for the first time since 2013. That year was kind to the Bears, who placed third for their best performance since a runner-up finish in 2005, tops in program history.
With a stacked relay arsenal and some firepower in other events, the men's track and field team expects to make a big jump from last year's ninth-place effort.
Friday
The Bears can rack up points early as freshman Matt Thatcher and senior Connor Lent compete in the decathlon, which gets underway with the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, javelin, and 400-meter dash on Friday before concluding Saturday morning. Thatcher is seeded fourth and Lent fifth in a seven-man field, meaning everyone who completes the event will earn points for his squad.
Freshman George Psaradakis makes his outdoor championship debut in the hammer as the tenth seed (114-11).
Saturday
Sophomore Codi Yhap figures to be in the medal mix in the long jump, with a top mark of 20-11.25 that ranks fourth in the conference heading into the championship meet. Classmate Austin Bittenbender (20-5.25) is seeded seventh and will look to stay in scoring range to supplement Yhap, and freshman Mike Felix is seeded 16th.
Sophomore Craig Lauer will represent the Bears in the steeplechase, where he is seeded just inside projected scoring range in eighth, with a time of 10:15.58.
The Bears have multiple opportunities for points in the 400, where sophomore Andre Kelly is seeded fourth at 50.91 after a 10th-place showing at last year's outdoor meet.
Senior Jamie Casseus will race in the 100, where his season low of 12.01 is good for 23rd in the conference.
Sophomores James McDaid (1:58.06) is ranked 10th in the 800 (1:58.06); he placed 15th in the event a year ago.
Senior Mitchell Kelly is a medal contender in the 400-meter hurdles, where his 57.58-second seed time is fifth in the conference. A year ago, Kelly won the prelims at the outdoor championship and took silver in the finals with a time of 56.47, while Mitchell placed fifth at 57.57. Freshman Zack Beavers is tabbed 11th at 1:03.09 and will look to lower his PR.
Yhap (23.43) and senior Jequan Mitchell (23.44) are seeded 10th and 11th, respectively, in the 200-meter dash.
The day concludes with the 4x800-meter relay, with McDaid joining sophomore John DeLia, Andre Kelly, and sophomore John Haase as the fifth seed.
Sunday
Mitchell and Yhap will join sophomore Brody Johnson and junior Shy'Quan Davis in the 4x100-meter relay, with that unit having posted a 44.50 at last week's Elizabethtown meet to sit fifth on the CC performance list.
Ursinus could be in line for a batch of points in the shot put, an event in which senior Adam Myers captured a silver medal a year ago. Myers finished fifth two years ago and has finished in second place at each of the last two indoor CC championships. The senior is the fourth seed for this meet, and freshman Griffin McMann is seeded seventh at 46-1.25. Sophomore Carlo Telesco (13th) and freshman Billy McKernan (18th) are also in action for the Bears.
Yhap should also contend for a spot on the podium in the triple jump, ranking third on the performance list at 41-7.
In addition to the finals of the 110-meter hurdles, 400, 100, 800, 400 hurdles, and 200 (in that order), the Bears should have a stacked roster in the javelin. Felix (173-0), Lent (167-6), and Bittenbender (167-2) all rank within the top seven in the conference in the event, and fellow rookies Riley Grourke, Matthew Gallagher, Thatcher, and David Lippe will also join the fray.
The championship concludes with the 4x400-meter relay as Mitchell, Yhap, McDaid, and Kelly put their first-place seed time of 3:23.51 from the Penn Relays to the test against heavy competition from Johns Hopkins.
The championship will be livestreamed on the Centennial Conference Digital Network. Live results and live video links are available in the championship hub link at the top of this page.