COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – A pair of victories and a variety of personal records highlighted the Ursinus College track and field team's performance at the annual Frank Colden Invitational, the third of five home meets during the indoor season. The Bears welcomed a strong field featuring two nationally ranked Division III programs in addition to representatives from Divisions I and II.
Junior Jenna Kelly, freshman Auresa Cunningham, junior Lily Talerman, and sophomore Riley Engel dominated in the 4x800-meter relay, outpacing Haverford's second-place unit by nearly 17 seconds to finish in a time of 10:19.01. That mark places the Bears' grouping in second on the CC performance list.
Cunningham and Kelly also took part in the 4x200-meter relay, joining senior Erin Farrell and junior Catherine Buczek to finish third (1:50.28).
Farrell just missed out on making the finals of the 60-meter dash, placing eighth in a stacked field of 64. Her mark of 8.19 was just two-hundredths of a second off her season best and less than a tenth of a second off the qualifying standard; Farrell's time was third among Division III entrants and second in her heat. The senior placed seventh in the 200-meter dash with a season-best of 27.00.
Junior Katherine Damato and freshman Charley Darkes-Burkey took on the pentathlon. Damato's best event was the 800, where she placed second in 2:40.06 to earn 572 points. She placed sixth in the shot put (26-11.75) and tied for ninth in the high jump (4-5.50). Darkes-Burkey placed fourth in the shot put (27-9.50), seventh in the 800 (2:48.40), eighth in the 60-meter hurdles (10.30), and ninth in the long jump (14-4.50).
Freshman Sophia Simoes notched a collegiate best 35-8.50 in the shot put, which stands eighth in the CC.
Freshman Kira Miller posted a personal-best 10.20 in the 60-meter hurdles, just .02 seconds off the Bears' top clocking for the season, to move into the conference's top 15 and outperform her previous benchmark by two-tenths of a tick.
Sophomore Caroline Buckley moved into the top 20 in the conference with a personal best of 14-11.25 in the long jump, and classmate Morgan Cope pulled into a tie for eighth with a collegiate-best 9-5.25 in the pole vault.
On the men's side, the milers put together a trio of indoor personal records, led by freshman James McDaid (4:35.53). Fellow rookie John Haase outperformed his lifetime personal best by more than 10 seconds with a 4:37.72, and freshman Logan Mazullo (4:47.31) also recorded a collegiate best.
Junior Adam Myers once again threw a personal best in the shot put, doing so for the third straight meet. This time, his toss of 46-3.50 was enough to win the event and place him fourth in the Centennial Conference.
Junior Mitchell Kelly qualified for the CC championship in the 800, finishing the event in 2:07.10.
Sophomore Sam Pope, freshman Codi Yhap, and freshman Andre Kelly competed in both the 4x200-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay, taking fourth place in both with junior Jequan Mitchell in the former and Haase in the latter.
Freshman Austin Bittenbender compiled a strong performance in the pentathlon, finishing in the top five of all five events. He was second in the long jump (20-3.00), third in the shot put (35-3.25) and 1000-meter run (3:03.39), fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.82), and fifth in the high jump (5-00.25). Bittenbender registered collegiate bests in the shot put, 60-meter hurdles, and high jump; he now ranks just outside the top 10 in the conference in the hurdles (11th) and high jump (13th).
The track and field teams return to action next weekend at Boston University's Valentine Invitational.
