COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – A historic performance by senior Andrew Mackin and a thrilling finish in the final relay of the day lifted the Ursinus College men's track and field team to a third-place showing at the Centennial Conference Indoor Championships, their best standing in five years.

The Bears registered a team total of 66 points, eking past Gettysburg (65) to place within the top three. Johns Hopkins outdistanced Haverford, 195-184, to grab its fourth consecutive CC indoor crown. Franklin & Marshall was fifth with 56 points, followed by Swarthmore (50), Muhlenberg (41), Dickinson (22), and McDaniel (19).

Trailing Gettysburg by five points entering the final event of the championship, the 4x400-meter relay team of freshman Sam Pope and seniors Skyler McCormick, Erich Keyser and Mackin turned in a second-place effort (3:27.06), earning eight points to the Bullets' two and vaulting the Bears into their first top-3 placing at the conference indoor meet since 2011.

Mackin wowed the home crowd long before the dust settled on the two-day competition inside the Floy Lewis Bakes Center, saving his best performance for his last indoor 800-meter run. Besting defending champion Charlie Marquardt of Haverford with a big push as the final lap begin, Mackin surged ahead around the first turn and never conceded the lead on the way to a scorching clocking of 1:54.05, making him the first Ursinus man to win the 800 at the indoor conference championship. That time placed Mackin just .15 seconds off the school record, which has stood since 1987, and is second-best all-time at the CC indoor championship.

Mitchell, meanwhile, nearly claimed gold in the 60-meter dash, where his time of 7.04 broke a school record that had stood since 2009 and landed him a mere .02 ticks behind first-place Evan Friend of Franklin & Marshall; Johns Hopkins' Rafael Ferguson clocked a 7.034 to take second, with Mitchell a close third.

Mitchell made it back to the podium in the 200, capturing his second bronze medal of the day with a time of 22.88 to edge Ferguson by .02 seconds and place third.

After his gold medal-winning effort in the triple jump a day earlier, Pope came back to claim bronze in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.03.

The 'A' team of Mitchell, Pope, Keyser, and McCormick produced a silver medal in the 4x200-meter relay, an ECAC-qualifying standing of 1:33.31.

Keyser was fourth in the 60-meter hurdles, where his 8.85 fell just two-hundredths of a second behind Haverford's Dorvil Gabriel.

Pope placed fourth in the long jump with a 19-11.75, and sophomore Adam Myers was eighth in the shot put (42-5.50).