Swarthmore Collects Medals at CC Championships
HAVERFORD, Pa. -- Swarthmore runners Ross Weller '08 and Cait Mullarkey '09 picked up individual medals, long jumper Matt Turner leaped to a silver, while the men's 4x800 relay team broke the school record as the Garnet competed at the first two days of the 2007 Centennial Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Haverford College on Friday and Saturday.
The Garnet 4x800 relay squad collected the bronze medal with a school-record time of 7:49.50. Senior Matt Schiller dropped five seconds off his personal-best to put Swarthmore in great position after the lead leg--senior Dillon McGrew, sophomore Connor Darby (1:55.90) and senior Vernon Chaplin held it together to take down the previous record of 8:02.77 set in 2005.
Schiller also put up the fourth-fastest time in the 400 preliminaries (50.64), making the final on Sunday afternoon. Garnet freshman Mariel Feigen posted a personal-best in the 400 intermediate hurdles to also qualify for the Sunday finals.
Weller made a stirring kick in the final strides of the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase to split up a Haverford 1-2 finish, taking home the silver medal with a time of 9:34.82.
Mullarkey narrowly missed breaking her own school record in the women's steeplechase, roping in the bronze medal with a time of 11:43.87. She also breezed through her 800 meter heat, qualifying for Sunday's finals with the second-best time of 2:22.78.
Turner came through in the clutch Saturday's long jump competition. The spindly first-year sat in second place following the preliminary round. He went into his last jump of the finals still in second place and vaulted into first place with a leap of 22' 2.5". F&M's Kwaku Anno responded to the challenge and claimed the gold by recording a jump of 23' 2" in his final attempt.
Friday night saw a trio of Swarthmore distance runners set personal-best times in the 10,000 meter event. Sophomore Dan Hodson finised 10th (33:01.06) to earn the fifth-fastest time in school history while teammate Nat Erb-Satullo '07 was right behind in 11th (33:04.94) for the sixth-fastest clocking. Sophomore Bess Ritter picked up a point in the women's 10,000 by running eighth (39:50.86), sliding behind her sister Carrie Ritter '06 for fifth all-time at Swarthmore.
Swarthmore will take part in the final day of competition at the Centennial Championships on Sunday, starting with the finals of the field events at 11:00 a.m. and the 1,500 meter race at approximately 11:20 a.m.