COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Medals from Andre Kelly and Connor Lent and a remarkable effort by the javelin crew sent the Ursinus College men's track and field team with an array of highlights on the final day of the Centennial Conference outdoor championship.
Kelly claimed silver in the 400-meter dash and Lent led a 3-5-6-7 showing in the javelin for the Bears, who finished in seventh place in the team standings. Sophomore Codi Yhap earned places in two individual events and contributed to a pair of fifth-place relays.
Johns Hopkins claimed its fifth consecutive conference crown with 217 points. Haverford (140) was second, followed by Swarthmore (105), Dickinson (86), Gettysburg (78), McDaniel (71), Ursinus (62), Muhlenberg (61), and Franklin & Marshall (37).
Kelly, who already recorded a PR in Saturday's prelims, dropped his own personal record by almost a quarter of a second to 50.10. He finished behind only Johns Hopkins' Zach Shelley, who was runner-up at last year's outdoor meet as well as this year's indoor edition. Kelly's medal was his first career individual award at a conference championship meet; he placed fifth in the 400 at the indoor meet and 10th in last season's outdoor championship.
Yhap posted a new personal best in the triple jump, leaping 41-10.50 on his fifth attempt to place fourth and send five team points on to the Bears. It was the second career individual outdoor place at the CC meet for Yhap, who finished sixth in the long jump on Saturday. Yhap landed in sixth in the triple jump at the conference's indoor championship.
Yhap continued his big day with another PR in the 200-meter dash, placing fourth in a career-best 22.62 to land just .04 seconds out of medal range. Yhap is a conference place-winner in the 200 for the second time in his career, supplementing his seventh-place mark from the indoor meet. Senior Jequan Mitchell was sixth in 23.24, giving the Bears eight team points out of the event. Mitchell also placed sixth at the indoor championship.
The Bears were all over the leaderboard in the javelin, placing four in scoring range. Lent led the parade with a bronze medal toss of 174-9.00, a PR by nearly five feet and enough for his first career conference medal. Freshman Riley Grourke smashed his individual standard by 22 feet to place fifth at 170-10.00, fellow rookie Mike Felix finished sixth at 166-10.00, and sophomore Austin Bittenbender wound up in seventh with a mark of 162-11.00. Bittenbender scored at the outdoor championship for the second time in as many seasons, having placed seventh last year.
The 15 javelin points put the Bears within two points of Muhlenberg and eight points of McDaniel, enough to allow Ursinus to catch the Mules at the end.
Mitchell Kelly registered a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles, completing the race in 56.25 seconds to finish in fifth place. Kelly, last season's runner-up, grabbed his second career outdoor conference place in the hurdles.
Ursinus put up a pair of place-winners in the shot put. Senior Adam Myers threw 47-2.25 on his fourth attempt, landing in sixth, and freshman Griffin McMann took seventh with a heave of 46-2.00 on the second toss of his outdoor championship debut. It was the first career CC place for McMann, who was 10th at the indoor meet.
Mitchell, Yhap, sophomore Brody Johnson, and junior Shy'Quan Davis placed fifth in the 4x100-meter relay, the first event of the day. They finished in a time of 44.52.
The 4x400-meter grouping of Mitchell, Yhap, sophomore James McDaid, and Andre Kelly capped the championships with a fifth-place effort (3:26.21). Kelly made a run at first-place Johns Hopkins with a blazing 200 but had too much ground to make up as the Bears settled for fifth. The performance was just enough to lift the Bears past Muhlenberg by a point and into seventh in the final team tally.
