CHESTER, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley men's outdoor track and field team put together a dominating performance to win the program's first Middle Atlantic Conference Championship on Saturday. The Dutchmen won by 61 points over host Widener University who finished second. It also completes the sweep of track and field titles this year after they won the program's first indoor title in February.
 
Zach Reed was named the MAC Track Athlete of the Year after wins in the 110 and 400 hurdles while also anchoring the 4x400 meter relay team to a second place finish. Melissa Byler was tabbed as the Coach of the Year. The Dutchmen scored 162 points while Widener was second with 101. DeSales University was third with 90 points, Stevens Institute of Technology was fourth with 78 points, and York College of Pennsylvania rounded out the top five with 58.6 points.
 
Owen Linder scored two points in the 100 meters as he finished seventh in 11.23 seconds. He also finished seventh in the 200 meters to score another two points with a time of 22.97 seconds. Elijah McKell used a strong kick to repeat as the 800-meter Champion. The sophomore was third at the 400 and surged for the lead before holding off a late sprint from two runners to win in a career best 1:52.82. He earns First Team All-MAC honors and scored 10 points as he has now won the past three 800 titles between indoors and outdoors. His time is fourth in the program record books.
 
The Dutchmen placed two on the podium in the 1500 meters as Vinny Ferrizzi was sixth and Sam Rothstein finished seventh. Ferrizzi ran 4:00.40 to score three points while Rothstein crossed the line right behind him in a career best 4:00.61 to score two points. Rothstein moved up to seventh from ninth on the top 10 list with his time. Eric Shelton finished 12th in a career best 4:08.35. Matthew Santana had a strong race in the 5000 meters to finish fourth and score five points with a time of 15:00.85. Joe Chukoskie was seventh to score two points with a time of 15:05.54. Rothstein ran a career best time of 15:26.57 to finish 14th, Dylan Lenhart finished 22nd in a career best 15:42.90, Donnie Miller ran 15:52.00 to finish 29th, and Lukas Walko was 31st in 15:59.66.
 
The Dutchmen claimed four of the top five spots in the 110 hurdles led by Reed with a winning time of 14.71 seconds to score 10 points and earn First Team All-MAC honors. His time was a career best and is tied for third in program history. Daniel Murtha earned Third Team honors with a third place finish in 15.19 seconds to score six points. Kadan Smith ran an AARTFC qualifying time of 15.49 seconds to finish fourth and score five points. Joshua Leidich finished fifth to core four points in 15.97 seconds to equal his career best time that he also ran in the preliminaries yesterday. Reed doubled up his MAC titles and First Team honors with a win in the 400 hurdles. He raced around the track and pulled away down the stretch in a career best 53.54 seconds to score 10 points. Reed's time is third on the program's top 10 list. Smith finished fourth in 56.65 seconds to score five points. His time matches his career best that he ran at the AARTFC Championships last spring.
 
The 4x100 relay team of Donovan Goundie, Alex Sabo, Linder, and Colin Winters finished fifth to score four points in 43.07 seconds. They ran 0.20 seconds faster than they did in Friday's prelim. The 4x400 meter relay team of Linder, Goundie, McKell, and Reed finished second with a season-best time of 3:19.21 to earn Second Team honors and score eight points. Their time just missed the school record by 0.04 seconds.
 
Ayden Stankus won the pole vault to score 10 points and earn First Team All-MAC honors with a height of 4.17 meters (13'8.25"). As he did to win the indoor title, Stankus passed until all the other competitors were fouled out. He then cleared his first vault at 4.17 meters to claim the title. Stankus attempted to clear 4.36 meters but missed on all three tries. Grant Smith had a career best height of 3.97 meters (13'0.25") to finish fifth and score four points.
 
Cody Shay finished 10th in the shot put with a career best toss of 13.22 meters (43'4.50") on his first attempt. Luke Tobin was 14th with a career best mark of 12.78 meters (41'11.25") on his second throw. Ian Paul had a toss of 12.07 meters (39'7.25") on his second try to finish 21st.
 
Paul won the javelin with a throw of 59.73 meters (195'11") on his fifth attempt to score 10 points and earn First Team honors. Nick Guerieri finished second to score eight points and earn Second Team honors with a toss of 55.27 meters (181'4") on his fifth throw.
 
LVC will be back in action at the AARTFC Championships on Wednesday May 15. The meet is being hosted by SUNY Cortland in Cortland, New York.

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