ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Griffin McMann's unprecedented throws triple, Evan Giannetti's ascent to one of the nation's best in the javelin, and a stable of success in the sprints powered the Ursinus College men's track and field team to a third-place finish at the Centennial Conference outdoor championships.
The Bears compiled a program-record 147 points in placing third for the second consecutive edition of the outdoor meet. Combined with the 1-2 finish in Friday's hammer, Ursinus accumulated 13 medals: four gold, five silver, and four bronze.
Much of that lofty point total was due to the prodigious efforts of McMann, who became the first Centennial Conference athlete to win the discus, hammer, and shot put at the outdoor championships.
Two days after winning gold in the hammer, McMann doubled his pleasure in the shot put. The senior put up a 49-5.75, over two feet beyond the runner-up from Muhlenberg. The performance made McMann the first Ursinus outdoor shot put champion since Marquis Wilson in 2014. Nick Galbraith (7th; 42-11.75) and George Psaradakis (8th; 40-1.50) also earned places for the Bears.
McMann then became the first Ursinus man to capture conference gold in the discus, outdistancing McDaniel's silver medalist by nearly 10 feet to cap his dominant individual display. In addition to making program history, McMann also etched his name into the record books as one of six men in CC history – and the first since 2011 – to pull off the discus-shot put double.
McMann ends his championship career as a five-time Centennial Conference champion and a six-time medalist.
Giannetti came in as the heavy favorite in the javelin and lived up to the billing, uncorking a mark of 194-4 to climb all the way inside the top-10 in Division III and all but guarantee a spot at nationals. Giannetti's toss was more than 15 feet clear of the runner-up in the event. Riley Grourke collected his first career outdoor medal with a third-place finish (166-3).
Reilly, Carter, Max Gadsden, and Tyree Williams-Jackson secured the silver medal in the 4x100-meter relay, edging Dickinson by .02 seconds for second with a clocking of 43.59. It was the second career silver in the event for Carter, Reilly, and Williams-Jackson, who also finished runner-up in 2019.
Reilly also ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay, which finished a mere .61 seconds behind first-place Johns Hopkins to match the 4x100 with a silver medal. Payton Stanziani took the lead leg, and Reilly was succeeded by Devon Greaves and Zach Crebbin for a Bears quarter that completed the race in 3:22.94.
Reilly put his talent on display in the individual sprints, claiming medals in both the 100- and 200-meter dash. He notched a PR in the 200, crossing the line in 22.25 seconds to win his second consecutive outdoor silver medal in the event. Reilly was just .05 ticks behind Dickinson's Cole Boback.
Reilly came up a little short in his quest to defend his 400-meter dash title from the 2019 championships, but the junior still secured bronze with a time of 49.60 seconds.
Through his first three seasons, Reilly has already accumulated 13 medals at conference championship meets.
Daniel Maloney grabbed silver in the 110-meter hurdles with a PR 15.54 seconds, and rookie teammate Greaves eclipsed his previous personal standard by more than a second to take eighth place and earn an extra point for the team.
Greaves was also terrific in the 400 hurdles, establishing a personal best by more than two seconds to earn a sixth-place finish at 57.49 seconds.
Carter saved his best sprint of the season for the perfect time, blazing his way to a bronze medal in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.97, a collegiate best by .07 seconds. The junior backed up his bronze from the 2019 outdoor meet with one of the top times in program history.
Zach Crebbin registered his first career outdoor medal with a third-place effort in the high jump, collecting bronze with a mark of 6-4.75.
Stanziani outperformed his projections with big personal bests in both the 200 and 400. He turned in a mark of 50.05 seconds in the 400, easily enough to snag a fourth-place finish, and placed fifth in the 200 with a career-best 22.71. Octavious Carter was seventh in the 200 at 23.17.
Jesse Wun, Marcos Maciel, Kyle Berardi, and Dolan Cox finished fifth in the 4x800 relay (9:11.45).
Maciel finished sixth in the 1500 meters, completing the race in a personal-best 4:06.93.
Wun (34:32.37) and Berardi (35:33.73) placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 10,000 meters.
