COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Track & Field team continued their dynamic weekend at the 2022 Centennial Outdoor Track & Field Championships on another rainy Saturday afternoon at Patterson Field.
After two days, the Bears remain at the top of the team standings with 96 points and are 21 points clear of the current second place Johns Hopkins.
Senior Zach Crebbin won his first gold at a Centennial Championship meet after taking first place in the high jump. Crebbin cleared the bars at 1.91 meters and won a four-way tiebreaker by virtue of having fewest fouls in the event. His previous best finish in the outdoor high jump finish was third in 2021 while also placing second in the indoor championships this past February. Crebbin is the first Bear to win gold in the men's high jump at Centennial Championships since Darius Jones in the 2013 championships. He followed that by earning a silver medal in the long jump with a career-best mark of 6.85 meters. Crebbin completed his day by qualifying for the finals of the 100-meter dash tomorrow on his personal best time of 11.20.
Junior Isaiah Battle earned his first career discus throw outdoor medal with a runner-up finish behind a throw of 40.25 meters, which is also his second silver medal of the weekend. Battle led a group of five Bears in the discus as senior Nick Galbraith earned a point for Ursinus with his eighth-place finish after a throw of 36.12 meters.
The 4x800 relay team of freshman Paul Faggioli, freshman David Kenny, sophomore Tucker McGrath, and freshman Christian Rosado stunned the crowd by finishing in second with a new school record time of 7:51.95. The group shattered the Bears school record by nearly 14 full seconds while topping their old previous best mark by 28 seconds. It was also the first time in program history that a Bears 4x800 relay team won a medal at Centennial Championships.
Freshman Trey Rolle also had a strong day in the jumping events by earning finishes of fourth in the high jump and seventh in the long jump. Rolle matched Crebbin and two other competitors by clearing the bar at a career-best 1.91 meters before losing out on tiebreaker. He notched his second personal best of the day with his long jump mark of 6.48 meters.
Ursinus set themselves up to potentially gain a large amount of point tomorrow from sprints after sending a combined nine athletes through to the finals in the 100, 200, and 400-meter dash. The Bears dominated the 400-meter dash by locking in five of the eight finals spots, led by junior Daniel Tabor's time of 50.41. Senior Tyler Reilly, junior Payton Stanziani, sophomore Collin Ney, and freshman Tyler Wilson also qualified for the 400 finals tomorrow afternoon. Reilly and Tabor also locked themselves into the 200-meter dash finals while senior Octavious Carter joined Crebbin in the 100-meter dash finals.
Junior Daniel Maloney and sophomore Devon Greaves qualified for the 110-meter hurdles with the second and sixth fastest times from prelims, respectively. Greaves also earned a spot in the 400-meter hurdles final with freshman Mason Jolivette.
The Bears decathlon trio competed their final events and senior Brandon Slaboda paced the group in fourth after compiling 4,730 points. Slaboda finished second in the 1500-meter run (4:35.85), third in the 110-meter hurdles (20.21), third in the discus (24.42m), fourth in the javelin (32.29m), and fifth in the pole vault (3.35m). Freshman Ethan Chambers earned 4,288 points to place fifth behind a third in the 1500-meter run (4:44.74), fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (20.27), fourth in the discus (21.03m), sixth in the javelin (27.64m), and eighth in the pole vault (2.55m). Sophomore Muheer Mardirosyan led the trio with a fourth in the pole vault (3.45m).
Ursinus concludes the 2022 Centennial Championships tomorrow, May 8th with the first events starting at 11 a.m.