YORK, Pa. - The Salisbury University men's
track and field team cruised to their fifth consecutive Capital
Athletic Conference championship Saturday at York (Pa.)
College. The SU women's team finished second as the Sea Gulls could
not dethrone University of Mary Washington, who has won every one
title (15) since the conference began hosting track and field
championships back in 1994.
The men posted 246 points which was 92 points better than second
place Mary Washington to win their 10 championship overall. The
five in row is a new conference record as Salisbury and Mary
Washington had both won four in row at one point. The Eagles won
four straight from 2000-2003 but were displaced by Salisbury in
2004 where the Sea Gulls have remained ever since.
Salisbury set five conference meet records (two team, three
individual) and won a combined 16 events out of a possible 40 as
the men won 11 events and the women won five. The Sea Gulls also
had 27 individuals earn All-CAC honors, which are awarded for a
first or second place finish in any event. Four Salisbury relay
teams were also named to the All-CAC team.
The men's 4x100 relay team was the only team event the Gulls
earned a first-place finish in. The team comprised of seniors
Samuel Singleton and Kevin Teal
along with sophomores Justin Acker and
Delannie Spriggs, broke a 14-year old conference
meet record (41.86 seconds held by Salisbury) as the team crushed
the old record by 82 hundredths of a second with a new time of
41.04 seconds.
The Sea Gulls also broke another conference meet record in the
4x400 meter relay, but wound up being surpassed in the same race by
Mary Washington. The team of seniors Colton Vander
Vliet, Singleton, junior Josh Michael and
sophomore Quentin Briscoe improved upon their best
time set a few weeks ago at the Duke invitational as they finished
with a time of 3:21.66. The Eagles ran the event in an impressive
3:20.95 which gave the new conference meet record to UMW.
Both teams sprinted by the old record (3:23.89) held by the Eagles.
An individual record setting performance was turned in by SU
sophomore Christian Adami in the men's javelin.
Adami chucked the javelin 195 feet, six inches which shattered the
old conference record by eight feet. He was less than two feet off
the school record set by All-American Tim Robinson back in 2005.
The throw provisionally qualified Adami for the NCAA Division III
championships which will be held May 22-24 in Oshkosh, Wisc.
The other Sea Gull to provisionally qualify for the NCAA
championships was Spriggs in the 100-meter dash. The All-American
won the event with a time of 10.83 seconds in the finals but it was
his time of 10.78 seconds in the preliminaries that allowed him to
qualify.
Singleton also set a conference meet record in the 400-meter
dash as he easily won the event with a time of 48.94 seconds. He
beat the old time of 49.02 seconds set back in 2001 by UMW runner
Peter Diamond.
Sophomore Brandon Fugett completed the sweep of
the throwing events for Salisbury as he propelled the shot put 46
feet, 10 inches; launched the discus 150 feet, seven inches and
hurled the hammer 145 feet to win all three events. First place in
the triple jump belonged to freshman Brandon Lane
as he leaped 44 feet.
Sophomore Bill Nastasiak also took home a
first-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of
10:03.12. Senior Eric Graves won the 1,500-meter
run by a narrow margin with a time of 4:01.60 as Matt Cash from
Mary Washington was right on his heels. Vander Vilet closed out
Salisbury's haul on first-place finishes as he barely edged out
fellow teammate Briscoe in the 400-meter hurdles. The two ran times
of 55.47 seconds and 55.53 seconds, respectively.
Mary Washington finished second overall with 154 points followed
by York (Pa.) who accumulated 117 points. Wesley finished fourth
with 54 points and Hood rounded out the field with 54 points.
After falling just four points shy of a championship last year,
the women put forth their best effort but in the end they could not
overcome the juggernaut known as Mary Washington.
Freshman Masha Berge set a new conference
record in the 10,000-meter run, which was a new event added to the
championships this year. She took first place in the event
completing the run with a time of 41:03.52. Junior Amy
DeMichele (43:17.28) and freshman Kristen
Stromberg (44:34.21) finished third and fourth,
respectively.
The other bright spot for the women were the throwers. Freshman
Melissa Stansbury and sophomore Janay
Johnson finished one-two in both the shot put and the
discus throw. Stansbury tossed the shot put 35 feet, 2.83 inches
and threw the discus 113 feet, 2.67 inches. Johnson also finished
second in the hammer throw as she chucked the hammer 111 feet, 11
inches.
Junior Jenn Bulger out jumped the competition
on her way to first place in the high jump as she cleared five
feet, three inches. She also took second in the long jump as she
soared 16 feet, two inches.
The All-American Victoria Lawson won the
400-meter dash with a time of 58.91 seconds. The sophomore was just
a little over a second off of the provisionally qualifying time for
the NCAA championships.
In the team relays, the 4x100 meter relay team of sophomores
Ashleigh Macintosh and Lawson and freshmen
Mandy Maruchi-Turner and Charlese
Phillips ran the event in 51.30 seconds which gave them a
second-place finish behind the Eagles. The 4x400 meter relay team
also finished second to the Eagles as the team of seniors
Alicia Canzanese and Casey
McInerny, Bulger, and Lawson crossed the line with a time
of 4:16.99.
Salisbury finished the day with 198 points, York (97) finished
in third, Hood (49) placed fourth, Wesley (13) finished fifth and
Gallaudet (6) rounded out the field.
The maroon and gold will travel to the University of
Pennsylvania next weekend, April 24-26, to participate in the
historic Penn Relays.
