This past weekend, the Muhlenberg track & field program went to the Centennial Conference (CC) championship ready to compete. After traveling to Franklin and Marshall College (F&M) in Lancaster, Pa., the team had an extremely competitive and successful weekend full of achieving medals, personal records, school records and Muhlenberg’s all-time top-ten performances. The men’s team had an impressive final placement of fourth in the CC, only behind three extremely dominant teams. The men placed the highest they have in the past five years. Meanwhile, the women’s team finished eighth in the CC, tying their place from last year.
Even in a conference with extremely fierce competition, Muhlenberg had abundant top finishes. First-place performances consisted of Avery McNulty ‘26 in the high jump and Dylan DeMagistris ‘24 in the 35lb weight throw. Additionally, Mike Powel ‘26 and Jaden Snow ‘27 both earned second place in their events, Powel in the 35lb weight throw and Snow in the heptathlon. The remaining medalists for Muhlenberg include the third place finishes, which are Maya Richwine ‘27 in the women’s 60m hurdles, Sam McDonough ‘24 in the men’s 60m hurdles, Isaac Schaffer-Neitz ‘27, Joshua Castro ‘25, Bryce Rhodeman ‘27 and Chris Short ‘27 in the men’s 4×200, and of Castro, David Seel ‘27, Raam Ravishankar ‘27 and Short in the 4×400.
The Championship meet also showcased three tied or broken school records, coming from McDonough, who broke the school record he previously owned in the 60m hurdles, McNulty, who tied the school record in the high jump and Snow, who broke the school record in the heptathlon. To add to the noteworthy results, seven Muhlenberg athletes qualified for the regional championship. These athletes are McDonough in the 60m hurdles, Max Broadbent ‘27 in the triple jump, DeMagistris and Powel in the weight throw, Richwine in the 60m hurdles, McNulty in the high jump and Shira Gamson ‘26 and Shanice Williams ‘26 in the triple jump. The team additionally put up an incredible 19 Muhlenberg all-time top ten performances.
Given the plenty of successful marks that the team brought, competitor on the men’s team Matt Hajel ‘26 reflected on the competition, “The championship meet at F&M this weekend went extremely well. Everyone had really exciting performances to watch and the whole team was super supportive of one another and we all cheered one another on,” Hajel said. This support and positive energy went a long way and shined through this past weekend along with all the hard work that the Mules have been putting in all season to get to this point.
The efforts made in practice and meets throughout the last few months as well as the results of the Conference meet have been especially remarkable given having such a young team. Hajel added, “The freshman class are huge contributors to our team this year which is definitely something that’s exciting because they can continue to dominate the competition for the next couple of years.” The team’s first-years have started off their college careers boldly and have set an extremely solid foundation to work off of for the next three years.
Now that the team has proved themselves to be exceptionally competitive, there is so much to come for Muhlenberg track as the team awaits the outdoor track season. Hajel discusses the team’s ambitions moving forward, “our team’s goals for outdoor track are to stay strong and go out with a bang. Since we are hosting the conference meet at our home track, we have a home court advantage. Coach Hackett, our head coach, is retiring after this season so we are confident that we will give it our all to give him the satisfaction of coaching at Muhlenberg for 25 years. With the support of everyone on our team, we can accomplish so much this outdoor season!”
Pressing on with this positive attitude, some of the Mules will advance to the All-Atlantic Region Championships in Rochester, NY hosted by Nazareth College this coming weekend. Shortly after, the whole team will be back and ready to keep fighting as they go to their outdoor season opener at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. Muhlenberg track is not done yet, there is more of the team’s success to come!
