Members of the Muhlenberg track and field teams enjoyed great success on opposite sides of the Delaware River.

In Philadelphia, senior Will Elson finished 13th in the Olympic Development Mile at the 109th Penn Relays. Elson was one of only four collegiate runners in the field. His time of 4:09.28 made the NCAA automatic qualifying standard for the 1,500 meters (times in the mile can be used to qualify for the 1,500). Elson had previously qualified provisionally in the 1,500.

In South Jersey, the rest of the Mules broke three school records at the Lions Invitational, hosted by The College of New Jersey.

Two of the records were set by women’s relay teams. In the 4x100, freshmen Kate Isselee and Danielle Seiler and sophomores Ashlie Hankee and Katie Macomber ran a 51.46, breaking the record of 51.70 they had tied earlier this season. Isselee, Seiler and Macomber also teamed up with junior Lesley Bruno to finish second in the 4x400 with a time (4:07.49) that knocked nearly five seconds off the previous school record.

The third school record belongs to senior Brendan Gallagher, who won the steeplechase in 10:05.03 the first time he ever competed in the event. The old standard of 10:06.79 was set in 1992. Sophomore Christopher Martin, also new to the steeplechase, came in second in 10:21.07.

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• Baseball: The baseball doubleheader at Johns Hopkins was rained out and rescheduled for Sunday, April 27, at 1:00. Despite being idle, Muhlenberg (19-9-1, 10-5-1) clinched a berth in next weekend’s Centennial Conference playoffs when Gettysburg (9-7-1) split with Washington. Even if the two teams finish tied at 10-7-1, the Mules would get the fourth and final berth because of their sweep of the Bullets.

• Women’s Lacrosse: The Muhlenberg women’s lacrosse team finished its best season ever with a 17-7 loss at fourth-ranked Gettysburg (16-1, 9-0). The two seniors playing in their final game both reached career milestones, as Lynsey Caldwell moved into third on the team’s all-time scoring list (177 points) and Sarah Bowman recorded her 100th career point. Freshman Courtney Tapkas scored three goals to tie the school record of 12 hat tricks in a season.

The Mules (8-7, 4-5) set school records for wins, goals (208), goals per game (13.87) and assists (94) in 2003.

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Golf: Junior Matt Katz shot a one-over-par 73 – the best score so far in the tournament – as the Muhlenberg men’s golf team moved into a tie for first place after two rounds of the Centennial Conference Championships.

The Mules, who are seeking their fourth title, trailed Gettysburg by six strokes after the first 18 holes, but had three players shoot in the 70s in the middle round for a team score of 307. Franklin & Marshall did even better, with a 304, to tie Muhlenberg with a two-day total of 628. Gettysburg slipped to third place, nine strokes behind the leaders, and Ursinus is still in contention at 639.

Katz is in third place after two rounds with a 152, four strokes off the lead, while junior Jesse Neider is just one stroke behind after firing a 75 in the second round. Senior Todd Scolnick shot a 76, shaving eight strokes off his first-round score.

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The Muhlenberg women’s team sent three golfers to the CC Championships and is not eligible for the team title. Sophomore Kristen Bruschi shot a 111 on the first day of competition to rank ninth on the leader board.

Tennis: Junior Gena Ross of the Muhlenberg women’s tennis team and the men’s doubles team of sophomore Jeff Kraft and senior Cameron Parke are in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Individual Championships.

Ross, seeded second, will play unseeded Elli Suzuki of Swarthmore on Sunday morning for the right to play in the championship match. She breezed through her first five sets, winning four of them 6-0 and the other 6-1. In her quarterfinal match, however, Ross dropped the second set in a tiebreaker, but came back to win the super tiebreaker third set and advance.

In doubles play, the Mules’ No. 2 team of freshman Amy Schmidt and sophomore Emily Oster made a run to the semifinals by winning three straight matches. The unseeded Muhlenberg duo played an outstanding match to upend the fourth-seeded team from Swarthmore, 9-7, then defeated a Franklin & Marshall team in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Schmidt and Oster ran into a Washington duo that is ranked 11th in Division III and fell, 8-4.

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Kraft and Parke, who play at No. 2 for the Mules, won their first match against Dickinson’s No. 2 team, then scored a convincing 8-3 upset win against the No. 1 team from Johns Hopkins, which was seeded second and reached the tournament final last year. Kraft and Parke will face the second doubles team from Washington in Sunday’s semifinal.

Muhlenberg’s top doubles team of seniors Brad Scheller and Matthew Fleissig advanced to the quarterfinals before suffering a tough 9-7 loss to a duo from Haverford. The Mules’ three singles entries – Scheller, Kraft and Parke – all were defeated in the Round of 16.

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