COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – With the comforts of home to bolster them, the Ursinus College track and field teams are ready to test their mettle as the Centennial Conference Indoor Championships come to the Floy Lewis Bakes Center this weekend.
The two-day competition is set to start on Saturday, with the bulk of the action reserved for Sunday.
Both Ursinus squads placed fifth at last year's championships, and each hopes to continue to climb the conference ladder. With a multitude of student-athletes near the top of the CC performance lists, the Bears appear more than capable of doing so.
On the women's side, senior Krista Snyder will look to set the tone early on Saturday in the pentathlon, in which she enters the meet ranked third in the conference with 2728 points. Snyder will also compete in the long jump and has a place on the Bears' top ranked 4x400-meter relay team. Sophomore Katherine Damato is one to watch as well, she comes into the event seeded fifth and will hope to rise up the ranks this weekend.
Junior Erin Farrell enters championship weekend with plenty of potential. She is seeded second in the 200-yard dash (26.61), a mere .07 seconds off the top-seeded pace of Johns Hopkins' Megan McDonald; senior Kristen Prijs (27.20) is seeded eighth. Farrell also comes in eighth in the 60-meter dash, though her seed clocking of 8.17 is just .04 seconds out of fourth, and .15 ticks behind top-seeded Brittany Steele of Haverford.
Prijs is the projected runner-up in the 400-meter dash, her time of 1:00.29 ranking behind only McDonald's 58.62. Sophomore Jenna Kelly could also score points; she comes in as the eighth seed with a mark of 1:02.88.
Freshman Brittany Gasser is pegged seventh in the 800-meter run (2:23.17). Gasser is hitting her stride heading into the conference meet, having run her season-best time just a few weeks ago at Boston University's Valentine Invitational.
Freshman Caroline Buckley is 14th in the 60-meter hurdles (10.61), with classmate Elizabeth Iobst (10.62) a step behind at 15th.
Senior Elizabeth Cooley, an all-conference selection two years ago, enters as the fourth seed in the pole vault with a mark of 9-10, hoping to build on last year's fifth-place showing.
Senior Krista Snyder, is seeded seventh in the long jump (16-8.5), and classmate Kimberly Snow is slotted 12th in the high jump, though her seed mark of 4-9.75 is tied with the ninth seed. Buckley is ranked eighth in the triple jump (32-11), where fellow rookie Morgan Cope is 13th, Snow stands 14th, and freshman Amira Gomez is 15th.
The Bears' 4x400-meter relay group of Snyder, Prijs, Gasser, and Kelly is the number one seed, coming in with a top clocking of 4:07.74 to outpace the rest of the field by more than three seconds, and will look to improve upon last season's runner-up finish. The 4x200-meter (Prijs, Snyder, Kelly, Farrell), 4x800-meter, and distance medley relay squads are all seeded third.
The mixture of success in the individual and relay events should go a long way toward helping the Bears improve upon their finish from last season. The Ursinus women hope to add to their all-time total of 18 CC gold medals, which ranks ninth in the conference. Johns Hopkins has claimed the last five CC crowns after a five-year run by Haverford from 2006-2010.
The men's team will lean heavily on freshman sensation Sam Pope. The first-year phenom is the top seed in the triple jump, where his mark of 46-2.75 is more than two feet more than his closest competition. Pope is also spotted fourth in the long jump (21-6.25) and ninth in the high jump (5-8.75). Sophomore Jequan Mitchell is seeded eighth in the long jump.
Mitchell comes in as the third seed in the 60-meter dash (7.08), behind only Hopkins' Rafael Ferguson (6.96) and Muhlenberg's Anthony Ware (6.95), while senior Erich Keyser is slotted fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.00), less than a tenth of a second out of third, and will also compete in the 4x200-meter relay. Mitchell is ranked second in the 200-meter dash, where his seed time of 22.89 trails only F&M's Evan Friend (22.46).
In addition to his field exploits, Pope is the expected runner-up in the 400-meter dash (50.79), where is behind only Haverford's Liam Lynch in 50.28. Senior Andrew Mackin is seeded second in the 800-meter run (1:56.10) behind only Haverford's Charlie Marquardt – an All-American, last year's CC Track Performer of the Year, and the two-time defending indoor 800 champion.
In the field, sophomore Adam Myers enters as the fourth seed in the shot put, where his heave of 44-11.5 ranks fourth among all conference competitors. Behind Myers, junior Tom Donnelly and sophomore Antonio Goode will look to push up the rankings.
Freshman Adam Friend is eighth in the pole vault (11-11.75).
Along with Pope, the Bears' top-ranked 4x400-meter relay unit includes Mitchell, Mackin, and fellow senior Skyler McCormick. Seeded at a school-record time of 3:24.13, the team will be looking to bring 4x400 gold back to Collegeville for the second consecutive season. The Bears are also hoping to get some points out of their 4x800m and DMR teams, which come into the meet seeded fourth in the conference. McCormick is a member of the Bears' 4x200 relay team and is seeded 12th in the 400m dash (52.78).
The Ursinus men rank fourth all-time with 35 Centennial Conference gold medals. Johns Hopkins has won the last three conference meets, with Haverford coming in second all three times after winning all but one title since 2000.
If the men's team hopes to improve upon last seasons' fifth-place finish, Coach Blickle and his charges will need big-time performances from the team's top talent.
This preview was co-written by Jonny Cope '19, a member of the men's track and field team.