WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. - With the help of three new conference records on Thursday's second and final day of the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field (AARTFC) Championships, Susquehanna won its first-ever AARTFC team title thanks to three event victories and a plethora of other top marks with a winning team total of 72 points. All three records were broken by their respective previous record holders, demonstrating what the River Hawks set out to accomplish going into the meet by sharpening their high marks for national championship contention.
The men's 4x100 team of
Dominic Santos,
Mason Winslow,
Jordan Donahay, and
Brandon Zimmerman turned on the jets once again to claim the AARTFC title and set a new school and Landmark Conference record at 40.72, beating their previous record of 40.74. This time puts them 15th-best in the country as of Thursday afternoon after qualifying for finals from Wednesday's preliminary time of 40.88. Next up on the record board was first-year and Landmark Rookie of the Year Calder
El Bachir Diakite in the 110-meter hurdles, winning his regional finals race with a time of 14.12, another Landmark and school record, while ranking eighth nationally. He entered Thursday after qualifying Wednesday with his preliminary time of 14.35 and his previous record being 14.30, which he set at Bucknell last month. Senior
Elliott Davis also conquered his own 400 conference record, finishing second with a time of 47.11 to best his previous mark of 47.34 from Moravian in late April. His time currently puts him 13th in the country. Senior
Benjamin Bulger, who currently holds the fastest 400 hurdles time in NCAA Division III at 51.47, won the regional race Thursday with a time of 51.72, beating out his competition by nearly one full second, .90 to be exact.
Senior
Brandon Zimmerman had a plentiful two days showing his stuff between the jumps and sprints, beginning with a 7.01m mark in the long jump for sixth place, then taking third in the 100 meters with a finals time of 10.64 after qualifying with a 10.55 preliminary time on Wednesday. Hurdler
Carter Smink joined Diakite with an impressive showing in the 110 hurdles, finishing third at 14.42 following his qualifying time of 14.52. Davis and Zimmerman paired up to run the 200 meters, with Davis finishing third at 21.67, just .14 seconds off the pace, while Zimmerman posted a time of 21.80. Multi athletes
Rowan Smith and
Charles Montross entered in the decathlon, with Smith finishing fourth with 5,909 points that included new PRs in the 400 at 50.76 and 3.45m in the pole vault, along with the second-best jump in the high jump at 1.85m. Montross finished ninth with 5,308 points, turning in a new best in the javelin at 28.58m and securing the best high jump at 1.94m.
Winslow also ran the 200 and the 400 with respective times of 22.14 and 48.95. Senior
Ezra Miller turned in a great career running the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.60, while in the 400 hurdles Smink ran a time of 56.42 and
Nikolai Lulewich 56.80. Montross competed in the long jump, going as far as 6.34m, while in the triple jump Landmark champion
Jackson Mabry reached 13.68m. Fellow Landmark champion in the shot put
Cole Goodwin turned in a throw of 14.18m, while javelin thrower
Jace Hershey came in with a 49.31m measurement. Santos took flight in the 100-meter prelims where he posted a time of 11.07.
The official announcement for the NCAA Division III national championship qualifiers will take place later this week. This year's championship will be at Geneva, Ohio's SPIRE Institute.
