The Muhlenberg indoor track and field teams collected eight first-place finishes and battled for position until the final event at the Centennial Conference Championships. The women repeated in second place, 1.5 points behind Haverford, while the men overtook the host school, Ursinus, in the final event to claim third.

Junior Jacquelyn Inverso, named the Most Outstanding Women’s

The Mules’ gold medal winners: Udis, Rothwell, Steinhart, Finkelstein and Mercado (top row); Seiler, Inverso, Drosdick and Mount (bottom row).

Field Performer for the second time in three years, took first in the triple jump, while sophomore Erika Koop was seventh to give Muhlenberg a half-point lead over Haverford entering the final event.

The Fords opened a large lead in the 4x400-meter relay and held off a late push by the Mules, who took second, to win the closest CC Indoor Championships ever.

Seniors Danielle Seiler (400 meters) and Karen Mount (800 meters) recorded first-place finishes for the Mules. Seiler, who also won the 400 last year, was just 11 hundredths of a second off her own school-record time, while Mount’s win was her second gold medal of the competition. Inverso, in third place, was one of five Mule high jumpers to score points.

Seiler broke one of the oldest school records on the books, beating a mark that had stood since 1994 by 31 hundredths of a second and finishing third with an ECAC-qualifying time. She also qualified for the ECACs as part of the second-place 4x400-meter

Rothwell passed Haverford’s anchor with two laps to go in the 4x800-meter relay to help Muhlenberg take first. He also finished third in the 800.

relay team with Mount and sophomores Jenna Lombardi – a seventh-place finisher in the 55 meters – and Emily Karel.

Mount teamed up with sophomore Sara Gearin and freshmen Kathryn Niedzwiecki and Janette Adams to finish in second place with a school record and ECAC-qualifying time in the 4x800-meter relay.

The men’s team sat seven points behind Dickinson for second place and six behind host Ursinus entering the 4x400-meter relay. The Mules took first and overpassed the Bears, but Red Devils’ fifth-place finish in the event kept them two points ahead of Muhlenberg. It was the sixth straight year the Mules finished in the top three.

The highlight for the men was a gold-medal performance in the 4x800 relay – the first time in the 13 years of the CC that Haverford did not win that event. Junior Lex Mercado got the Mules off to a big lead with a blistering first heat, and freshman Stuart Udis kept Muhlenberg in front through the second leg. Junior anchor Steve Rothwell was handed the baton in second place, but surged into first and crossed the finish line in a meet-record time of 7:56.08.

Mercado added two more gold medals in the 800 and 4x400 to join Will Elson (2003) as the only Mules to capture three golds at an indoor conference championship meet.

Sophomore Dan Steinhart, a member of the 4x400 team, ran a personal-best time in the 400 meters as he took second, and freshman Pat Cunning was the runner-up in the high jump. Senior Jason Finkelstein ran on both 4x400 and 4x800 first-place teams.

Click here for Muhlenberg highlights.
Click here for complete results.