COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College track and field teams continued to move up the Centennial Conference performance lists with a variety of impressive performances at Saturday's Frank Colden Invitational. The men placed fifth (46 points) and the women were sixth (42.50 points) in a field of 17.
Freshman Brittany Gasser won the 1000-meter run for Ursinus, edging out a pair of runners from Johns Hopkins to post a time of 3:14.52.
Senior Krista Snyder and sophomore Katherine Damato each competed in the pentathlon. Snyder was third overall; she placed second in the shot put with a toss of 30-4.25, good for 12th on the Centennial Conference performance list. She tied for second in the long jump with a mark of 16-8.50, which ranks sixth in the CC, and tied for fourth in the high jump with a leap of 4-7.50. Damato was fourth in the shot put and long jump and sixth in the high jump en route to a sixth-place showing in the pentathlon standings.
Freshman Briana Campbell registered a distance of 27-6.75 in the shot put, which ranks 18th on the conference performance list.
Senior Kimberly Snow recorded a season best in the high jump, placing seventh overall with a 4-9.75 that ties her for 11th in the conference. Classmate Elizabeth Cooley uncorked a new indoor personal standard in the pole vault, a 9-10.00 that puts her fifth on the CC performance list.
Freshman Caroline Buckley's 32-11.00 in the triple jump was three-quarters of an inch better than her previous record; it placed her 14th overall and moved her into seventh in the conference.
Junior Erin Farrell shattered her previous high-water mark in the 200-meter dash (26.96), placing fourth overall and moving to just two-hundredths of a second out of second on the CC performance list. Senior Kristen Prijs also established a new indoor personal mark in the event, a clocking of 27.35 (4th in CC) that earned her a sixth-place finish. She was just off her season-best in the 60-meter dash (8.42), and freshman Elizabeth Iobst was a mere four-hundredths of a tick off a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles; she placed 15th overall in the event.
Prijs set a new personal standard in the 400-meter dash as well (1:01.09), where she was fifth; her time is good for third in the CC. Sophomore Jenna Kelly moved all the way up to tenth in the league with a 1:03.28, which earned her an eighth-place standing.
Freshman Riley Engel qualified for the conference championships with a time of 2:36.08 in the 800.
The quartet of Prijs, Engel, Kelly, and Gasser took third in the 4x800-meter relay (10:09.77).
For the men, senior Andrew Mackin outpaced four Blue Jays to capture the 1000-meter run title in 2:35.03, and sophomore Joseph Iuliucci was the first collegiate finisher in the 5k (16:03.66), bettering his previous season best by more than 13 seconds.
The 4x400-meter relay group of freshman Samuel Pope, sophomore Jequan Mitchell, senior Erich Keyser, and senior Skyler McCormick won the event in 3:28.71, which placed them only two-hundredths of a second off the conference standard held by Haverford.
Junior Thomas Donnelly posted a new personal best of 38-5.00 in the shot put (20th CC).
Pope stood out in the field for the Bears, placing second in the triple jump (45-4.50) and improving upon his conference-leading mark. Pope's high jump of 5-8.75 ties him for eighth on the conference performance list, and his long jump total (21-0) was good for sixth overall and elevates him to fifth in the CC.
Freshman Adam Friend notched an 11-11.75 in the pole vault, moving him up to seventh on the CC list.
Keyser was ninth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.04), just off his season best.
The track teams travel to Boston on Friday, February 12 for the Valentine Invitational hosted by Boston University.