CLINTON, N.Y. – Opening the 2021 season with a dual meet at Hamilton College Saturday at the Pritchard Track, the Amherst College men's track & field team had a solid showing in their first outdoor meet in nearly two years en route to claiming six event victories.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last time the Mammoths competed outdoors was on May 25, 2019 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In 2019-2020, Amherst's season concluded just prior to the indoor national championships, with what stood as the Mammoths' last scoring meet coming on March 7, 2020.

TRACK EVENTS

• Senior Kyland Smith started off the season in style, edging out fellow Mammoth Ben Wadsworth '22 by sixth tenths of a second in the 400 meter dash to clinch first place with a time of 53.65 seconds. Wadsworth stopped the clock in 53.79.
• Koyla Markov-Riss '24 began his collegiate career with a silver medal performance, crossing the finish line in the 800 meter run in 1:55.74.
• In the 1500m run, first-year Oliver Spiva headlined the Mammoths, earning third overall (4:05.57).
• Spencer Davis '22 was Amherst's top finisher in the 5,000m run, clocking a time of 15:55.20 to place third.
• Taking to the starting line for the 110 meter hurdles, Troy Colleran '22 notched a new collegiate-best time of 16.03 seconds.
• Adding an event win in the 400 meter hurdles, sophomore Ellis Phillips-Gallucci claimed gold with a time of 56.04 seconds.
• Smith, Benjamin Bell '24, Robert Innes-Gold '22 and Ryan Prenosil '22 teamed up in the 4x400 meter relay to log a second place finish (3:27.37), while the Amherst quartet of Wadsworth, Alton Machen '24, Ian Dopp '24, and Markov-Riss finished less than a second after to secure third overall (3:27.73).

FIELD EVENTS

• Getting another event win in the high jump, first-year Gabriel Dos Santos logged a distance of 1.87 meters to take the top spot.
• Chris Gong '23 and Colleran beat out their competition in the long jump, with Gong's mark of 6.94 earning the sophomore a first place finish and Colleran's distance of 6.82m being good for second overall.
• A distance of 12.73m earned Dos Santos a second place finish in the triple jump, while Colleran rounded out the day with a toss of 11.90m in the shot put to notch the event win.

As a team, Amherst tallied 52 total points compared to the Continentals 69 points.

The Mammoths return to action on Sunday, May 2 when they travel to Williamstown, Mass. for a tri-meet with Williams College and Hamilton College.

 

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