COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Over 20 teams from Division III and Division II joined the Ursinus College track and field teams for the season-opening Bow-Tie Classic on Saturday, and several Bears provided some of the premier performances at the annual event that kicked off the indoor campaign.
Senior Kristen Prijs (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) won the 200-meter dash in 27.41 seconds and put forth a runner-up effort in the 400-meter dash (1:00.14). Prijs also recorded a personal-best in the 60-meter dash (8.40), where she just missed out on the finals in 10th place.
Freshman Brittany Gasser (Fords, N.J./Middlesex Cty. Academy for Allied Health Biosciences) was fifth in the 800 with a clocking of 2:25.77, and fellow first-year runner Riley Engel (Newtown, Pa./Council Rock North) matched her with a fifth-place showing in the mile (5:39.39).
Senior Krista Snyder (West Sunbury, Pa./Moniteau) landed in fourth after a distance of 15-10.25 in the long jump, where freshman Amira Gomez (Middletown, R.I./Saint George's School) made the finals and took eighth with a jump just shy of 15 feet. Senior Elizabeth Cooley (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown) placed fourth in the pole vault (9-6.25).
Freshman Caroline Buckley (Lincroft, N.J./Middletown South) finished third in the triple jump (32-10.25). Gomez also landed in eighth in that event.
Sophomore Jequan Mitchell (Bridgeport, Pa./Upper Merion) was a standout on the men's side, placing third in the 60-meter dash with a personal-best time of 7.08 as well as the 200-meter dash (23.23).
Senior Andrew Mackin (Radnor, Pa./Radnor) registered the Bears' lone victory of the day, controlling the pace early before pulling away from the field with about 75 meters remaining in the 800-meter run, posting a time of 1:58.79.
Sophomore Adam Myers (Birdsboro, Pa./Daniel Boone) was runner-up in the shot put with a personal record of 44-11.5, and classmate Joseph Iuliucci (Haddon Township, N.J./Haddon Township) took third in the 5K with an indoor personal best (16:16.9).
Sophomore Richard Gould (Millstone, Township, N.J./Allentown) beat his previous personal best by a second and a half in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing fourth in 9.05 seconds.
Senior Skyler McCormick (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) turned in a pair of fifth-place results, one coming in the 200-meter dash (23.44) and the other in the 400-meter dash (53.05).
Freshman Evan Cirafesi (King of Prussia, Pa./Upper Merion) was eighth in the mile with a Centennial Conference-qualifying clocking (4:46.38), and senior Erich Keyser (Pennsburg, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) finished ninth in the 400-meter dash (53.62).
Ursinus is back in action on January 23, 2016, when the Bears host the Collegeville Classic.