May 2, 2004

SWARTHMORE, Pa. -- Senior Ben Stopper (Reinholds, PA/Conrad Weiser) edged out Franklin & Marshall's Chris Williams by less than 75 points to win the decathlon at the 2004 Centennial Conference Men's Track and Field Championships. Stopper's performance was the best by a Blue Jays in the first two days of the championship. Hopkins has accumulated 18 team points and is currently in seventh place after eight events.

Stopper jumped out to a big lead (nearly 300 points) after the first five events and then held on to beat Williams. Stopper accumulated 4,969 points to win the event. Williams was second with 4,896 points, while Muhlenberg's Harry Kegelman was third with 4,753.

The Blue Jays got a seventh and eighth place finish in the pole vault as freshman John Criezis (Chicago, IL/Loyola) placed seventh with a jump of 11' 9", while junior Pete Dixon (Middletown, NJ) placed eighth with the same jump (Criezis hit the mark in fewer attempts).

Sophomore Gabe Tonkin (Santa Barbara, CA/San Marcos) and sophomore Tai Kobayashi (Rolling Hills, CA/Phillips Exeter Academy) both picked up eighth-place finishes to round out the individual leaders for the Blue Jays through the first two days of the championships. Tonkin placed eighth in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 32:55.46, while Kobayashi finished eighth in the high jump with a leap of 5' 8.5".

Centennial Conference Men's Track Championships

Teams Scores * Through Eight Events

Haverford-88, Franklin & Marshall-42, Muhlenberg-42, Dickinson-38, McDaniel-29, Gettysburg-29, Johns Hopkins-18, Ursinus-15, Swarthmore-11.

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