Championship Preview
no jinx for track and field teams
on friday the 13th

At the beginning of the season when the men’s track team was asked about goals for the season, qualifying for NCAAs with a distance medley relay was mentioned – and quickly retracted. Mule Sports Daily was not allowed to mention the DMR in the season preview, as the men didn’t want to jinx it.

Well, now we are free to speak. The Muhlenberg track and field team will be sending six athletes to the NCAA Indoor Championships at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind., this weekend, including the men’s DMR of senior Stuart Udis, freshman Peter Rice, sophomore Bobby Torphy and senior David Chorney.

Juniors Alex Faust in the pole vault and Jennifer Lynch in the mile will represent the women’s team. All six athletes are scheduled to compete tomorrow.

Reaching the NCAAs in the distance medley has been a goal of the men since even before two of its members were on the team.

“Stu and I have been on the DMR team together since our sophomore year when we first tried to qualify,” said Chorney. “Since our first attempt we have known we could put together a team that was capable of running fast, but something seemed to go wrong, like an injury or bad race. This year we decided to forget about the DMR and focus on individual events and if we did that everything would ultimately fall into place.”

At the ECACs, the men’s DMR broke the school record with a time of 10:00.70, for the sixth-fastest time in Division III this season.

“The DMR is an event that is only raced during the indoor NCAA championship and going into ECACs we did not want to let the opportunity pass us,” said Udis. “For Dave and I, we are both seniors and this has been a goal of ours and we knew this would be our last opportunity.”

There are 10 teams entered to compete in the DMR on Friday; the University of St. Thomas has the fastest time with a 9:58.31.

“Looking at the start list it is very competitive with only a

Faust owns indoor school records in the pole vault, 55 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters.

few seconds separating all the teams,” said Chorney. “We would like to improve our current seed of sixth and definitely be All-Americans. As long as we focus on what we have to do and competing, we will give ourselves the best chance to finish as high as possible. If we do this I don’t think winning or a top-three finish is out of the question.”

“The members of the relay have run well over the past two weekends at the conference meet and ECACs and we expect to continue to race just as well in the NCAAs,” said Udis. “We know that if we continue to race like we have, our placing will take care of itself.”

Faust and Lynch are the first two women in school history to compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships.

“Knowing that we are the first two women with this opportunity from Muhlenberg is really motivating,” said Lynch. “It means a lot because it is such an honor to be able to represent the school and such a great program.”

Lynch qualified for the mile at the ECACs with a school-record time of 5:02.89; it was the third record Lynch has broken in her first year with the program.

“My first year with the program has exceeded all my expectations,” said Lynch. “The coaches have been so helpful and have really pushed me to do more than I ever thought I could. I’m learning

Udis is an experienced relay runner; he’s run a leg of the men’s 4x800 team that won Centennial Conference gold the past four years.

more and more about what I can do with each practice and each meet, and it’s really exciting.”

Lynch is set to run in the second heat, along with the group’s fastest seed of 4:53.58.

“I just want to leave Indiana with no regrets, knowing that I put everything I could into my event and could not have pushed myself any harder,” she said.

At the Muhlenberg Invitational, Faust cleared a height of 12-1, just missing the automatic qualifying height of 12-3½, but it was good enough to qualify provisionally for the championship meet.

“I’ve always hoped to one day make it to nationals,” said Faust. “Every year I get a little closer, but this year I started training earlier in the season and I think that made the difference.”

The top competitor in the pole vault has cleared 12-7.

The six athletes headed to Indiana is the largest Mule contingent ever for either the indoor or outdoor national track championships.

“I think we have a really strong, motivated team this year, and I think we worked off of each other’s ambition to get as far as we could,” said Faust.

“Sending six athletes is great,” said Chorney. “I think it shows how determined, supportive and hard the team works as a whole. It is also a testament to the depth of the team. It’s nice to go with a group of teammates because it makes the championship meet less stressful and gives it a sense of familiarity.”

“The hard work and positive attitudes are reflected in the amount of people going to NCAAs this year,” Lynch said. “We have great team chemistry and everyone is supportive of each other.”
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