COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Senior Nick Galbraith and freshman Brody Myers earned gold medals as the Ursinus Men's Track & Field team got off to a strong start at the 2022 Centennial Conference Outdoor Championships on a rainy Friday afternoon at Patterson Field.

The Bears lead the pack after the three events completed on Friday with 44 points behind a solid showing in the hammer throw and the pole vault.

Galbraith earned his second career gold medal in the hammer throw at Centennial Championships after unleashing a winning throw of 163-9 ft. He won his first gold medal in the event during his collegiate debut season of 2019. Junior Isaiah Battle followed in second with his throw of 148-1 ft. and junior Tim Holzapfel placed fourth on a mark of 139-2 ft. Freshman Tom Wood recorded two points for the Bears as well with his seventh-place finish following a throw of 124-3 ft.

Myers completed his gold medal sweep of the pole vault between the indoor and outdoor championships by once again topping his previous school record in the event. The Camp Hill native cleared the bar at 15-1 ft. which bested his old standard at 14-9 ft. Myers now holds the top four vaults in the Centennial Conference this season and became the first Bear in program history to win gold in the men's pole vault at outdoor championships. Freshman Evan Mitchell impressed with a fourth-place finish behind a new career-best mark of 12-11.5 and senior Ken Sprankle concluded his collegiate career with a fifth-place finish on his vault of 12-7 ft.

A trio of Bears competed in the firsrt leg of the Decathlon and senior Brandon Slaboda leads the group in fourth after compiling 2,558 points. Slaboda finished second in the 400-meter dash (53.28), fourth in the shot put (28-1 ft.), fifth in the high jump (5-1 ft.), fifth in the 100-meter dash (12.24), and sixth in the long jump (17-7 ft.). Freshman Ethan Chambers earned 2,499 points and sits just behind Slaboda in fifth behind a second-place finish in the high jump (5-8 ft.), fourth in the 400-meter dash (55.09), fifth in the long jump (17-9 ft.), fifth in the shot put (24-6 ft.), and seventh in the 100-meter dash (12.68).

Senior Marcos Maciel paced six Bears in the 10,000-meters with his 11th place finish on a time of 32:36.22. Classmates Edward Martinez and Jesse Wun finished 14th and 15th in the race with times of 32:51.52 and 32:56.28, respectively.

The Bears return to action tomorrow, May 7th as they will compete on the second day of the Centennial Championships with a start time of 11 a.m.