COLLEGEVILLE. Pa. – After years of building the Ursinus Men's Track & Field program into contenders for the Centennial Conference crown, Bears Head Coach Carl Blickle finally got his title. Behind a dominant final day that saw dazzling performances from the sprints, relays, and the throws, the Ursinus Men's Track & Field team won the 2022 Centennial Conference Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship at Patterson Field on Saturday afternoon.
The team championship was the first for the program since joining the Centennial Conference and the second overall in program history after claiming the 1987 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) championship. Ursinus amassed a program record 215 points in the three-day event, two of which were hampered by torrential rains, to snap the seven-year streak built by Johns Hopkins, who finished second with 189 points. The Bears totaled eight medals on the decisive day behind five golds, one silver, and two bronze.
Ursinus held a 21-point advantage over the Blue Jays coming into the final day of championships and the 4x100 relay squad of senior Octavious Carter, senior Tyler Reilly, senior Zach Crebbin, and junior Daniel Tabor set the tone right from the start by setting a new school, conference, and championship meet record on their time of 41.94.
Junior Daniel Maloney followed shortly by taking home the bronze in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.60. Maloney now has medaled in the event during outdoor championships for two-straight seasons after winning silver in 2021.
Senior Tyler Reilly put a bow on his decorated career at Centennial Conference Championships by winning four medals on Sunday with two individuals and two from relays. Reilly led a 1-2 Ursinus finish with Tabor in the 400-meter dash with his personal best time of 48.85. He shook off a false start in the 200-meter dash to edge Gettysburg's Michael Vigliano by .09 seconds in the second attempt with another personal best time of 21.90. Reilly put the finishing touches on a legendary outdoor championship weekend by anchoring the winning Bears 4x400 relay team that included Tabor, junior Payton Stanziani and sophomore Devon Greaves on a time of 3:19.62. Reilly amassed 40 points for both the indoor and outdoor championships this season and will finish with 25 career medals between the two track seasons. His golds in the 400 and the 4x400 were the second for each event in his career for the outdoor championships and it was the first time he won gold in the 200 plus the 4x100.
Tabor set a new personal best in the 400 by earning his silver medal with a time of 49.05 and finished fifth in the 200 on a time of 22.45, also a personal best. Tabor earned three medals on the weekend (Two relay golds and one silver) while earning a point with his eighth-place finish in the triple jump on a mark of 12.42 meters. Stanziani (50.11), sophomore Collin Ney (50.84), and freshman Tyler Wilson (52.02) provided much needed depth for the Bears in the 400 with finishes of fourth, seventh, and eighth. Carter and Crebbin each posted a time of 11.30 in the 100-meter dash to complete the sprints for the Bears.
Greaves and freshman Mason Jolivette both set personal best times in the 400-meter hurdles at 56.12 and 56.43 while finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
While the Bears took care of business on the track, the throwers were busy slamming the door on any potential rally from Johns Hopkins. Senior Nick Galbraith capped a dynamic weekend in the throwing pit by taking home gold in the shot put and bronze in the javelin. Galbraith blitzed his personal best in the shot put by nearly two full meters with his winning mark of 15.56 meters. It was his first-ever gold in the shot put and he kept the event title in Collegeville after Griffin McMann won it last year. Galbraith medaled in the javelin for the first time in his career after topping his previous personal best by .01 with his throw of 48.83 meters. He finished the weekend with two gold medals, one bronze medal, and placed in all four events he competed in over the weekend.
Three Bears followed Galbraith in the javelin with finishes of 4th through 6th place. Sophomore Eric Tanz finished in fourth on a throw of 48.20 meters, freshman Anthony Peloro placed fifth with a personal best mark of 47.75 meters, and freshman Chase Shaneman earned sixth with his toss of 47.70 meters. Junior Pat Patterson-Zuber recorded a fourth-place finish in the shot put on his throw of 13.56 meters and freshman Tom Wood placed sixth on a mark of 13.10 meters.
The team will have a full week to celebrate their program milestone before beginning their next goal of sending entries to the NCAA Championship Meet in Geneva, Ohio on Memorial Day Weekend. The team will compete in a pair of last chance events next week starting with the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet on Saturday, May 16th that will be hosted by Widener University at 4 p.m.