There were a couple of things different when the Muhlenberg track and field teams hosted their annual outdoor invitational: The meet was held on a Friday instead of a Saturday, and the Mules honored their seniors at the start of the meet.

Pictured above are Isabelle Hoffman, Avery McNulty, Sultan Almosbeh, Matthew Hajel, Dorsey Shoultz III, Andrew Smolowitz (standing, left to right) and Lydia Jenkins-Ford, Katie Shepard, Niki Matthews, Shira Gamson, Lauren Siesky, and Julia Tassone (kneeling, left to right).

Ten of the 12 seniors competed, and they all did very well:

• Almosbeh placed fourth in the 400 hurdles , breaking one minute for the first time in his career, and also set a personal best in the long jump while placing ninth.

• Gamson won the triple jump and placed fifth in the long jump.

• Hoffman and Shepard both lowered their PRs in the 800 by nearly two seconds. Shepard won her heat and placed eighth overall.

• Jenkins-Ford lowered her personal best in the 1500 by two seconds and ran with Shepard and Tassone on the 4x400 relay team that came in first.

• McNulty won the high jump, tying her outdoor personal best, and placed second in the javelin.

• Shoultz placed eighth in the shot put, made the final in the discus and contributed to one of the lighter moments of the meet when he anchored a 4x100 relay team comprised of throwers.

• Siesky finished second in the 200 and third in the 100.

• Smolowitz placed eighth in the 500.

In addition to Gamson and McNulty, five other Muhlenberg athletes won open events:

• Junior Christopher Short, competing for the first time since earning All-America honors in indoor track and field, picked up where he left off, breaking his own modern school record in the 200 meters. He finished in 21.62, topping his previous best of 21.78 and moving into a tie for fifth place on the Centennial Conference all-time list. Short also came in second in the 100 and anchored the 4x400 relay team to a win, making up a deficit of more than three seconds with a 46.95 split.

• Freshmen swept the men's hurdles, with Reese Davis winning the 110 highs and Kadon Harris cruising in the 400 intermediates. Harris' time of 56.60 ranks seventh on the all-time performance list, just 1.44 off the 18-year-old school record.

• In the throws, freshman Leo Dauberman won the javelin, and sophomore Caitlyn D'Addieco captured the discus.

Other highlights included sophomore Dami Shote setting an outdoor personal best in the shot put by more than three feet, landing in ninth place on the Mules' all-time performance list; junior Ava Lundy lowering her personal best in the steeplechase by 10.4 seconds; freshman Sophia Xenakis making the all-time performance list in both the hammer (eighth) and shot put (10th); and sophomore James Williams setting a personal best in the 200 for the second straight week. 

complete results

Muhlenberg Placewinners (women)
100m: 3. Lauren Siesky, 13.21
200m: 2. Lauren Siesky, 27.27
800m: 8. Katie Shepard, 2:32.91
5000m: 3. Maggie Holderith, 19:12.23
Steeplechase: 3. Ava Lundy, 12:47.85; 5. Julia Tassone, 13:36.71
4x400m: 1. Katie Shepard, Julia Tassone, Lydia Jenkins-Ford, Ella Borello, 4:42.20
High jump: 1. Avery McNulty, 5-3¾; 5t. Sophia Xenakis, 4-6
Long jump: 5. Shira Gamson, 16-1½
Triple jump: 1. Shira Gamson, 35-4; 3. Molly Curtis, 33-5¼
Discus: 1. Caitlyn D'Addieco, 121-0; 3. Kelly Stephen, 111-6
Javelin: 2. Avery McNulty, 107-6
Shot put: 5. Sophia Xenakis, 35-0½; 6. Kelly Stephen, 34-7
Pole vault: 5. Ella Sarnitsky, 9-0¼; 6. Kaitlyn Legaspi, 8-6¼

Muhlenberg Placewinners (men)
100m: 2. Christopher Short, 11.10; 6. Caleb Pasols, 11.40
200m: 1. Christopher Short, 21.62; 5. Caleb Pasols, 22.60; 6. James Williams, 22.73
800m: 7. Alex Stefaniak, 2:05.67
1500m: 8. Niklas Haraldsson, 4:13.89
5000m: 8. Andrew Smolowitz, 16:16.08
110m hurdles: 1. Reese Davis, 16.35
400m hurdles: 1. Kadon Harris, 56.60; 4. Sultan Almosbeh, 59.62
4x100m: 3. Dami Shote, Matthew Bertolino, Cooper Mullen, Dorsey Shoultz III, 51.88
4x400m: 1. Isaac Schaffer-Neitz, James Williams, Malachi Peters, Christopher Short, 3:26.31
High jump: 3. Kadon Harris, 5-10¾
Long jump: 4. Michael Bugler, 21-1½
Discus: 4. Dami Shote, 129-10
Javelin: 1. Leo Dauberman, 172-9
Shot put: 2. Dami Shote, 45-10½; 3. Matthew Bertolino, 44-9¾; 6. CJ Mersky, 42-1½; 8. Dorsey Shoultz III, 39-9¾