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LEWISBURG, Pa. – Lafayette earned gold medals in two events to conclude the Patriot League Outdoor Championships on Saturday, with senior Stephanie Benko taking home her second-career title in the 3000-meter steeplechase and sophomore Dave McGriff claiming his first conference championship in the discus.

Both victories were by commanding margins, as Benko’s 10:50.36 finish topped her nearest competitor by over six seconds while McGriff’s top heave of 177’ 5” was over seven feet farther than the second-place thrower.

Benko, who also won the event back in 2014 as a sophomore, posted a time which was well ahead of her previous season-best of 10:56.49. She would later add four additional points to the Leopards’ team score with a fifth-place showing in the 5000m (17:49.01).

McGriff was the top discus thrower in the conference for a majority of the spring, and he came within two feet and one inch of his season-best attempt which will likely qualify him for the NCAA East Regional meet on May 26-28 in Jacksonville, Fla.

Lafayette’s 4x400m relay women's foursome ended the meet with a bang, claiming Second-Team All-Patriot League honors with a runner-up showing in the race. Kelly Reager, Drew Davis, Erin Keen and Devin Smith combined to complete the event in 3:46.20, a mark which is the second-fastest in program history.

Davis and Keen had already reached the podium earlier in the afternoon, with the pair finishing third in the 400m and 100m dashes, respectively. Davis (55.20) just beat out Smith (55.25) in her race, posting a new PR which is the second-fastest time for Lafayette all-time. Keen finished the 100m in 12.22, and she added a fourth-place showing later on in the 200m (25.12). The Leopards picked up eight points overall in the 200m, as Davis (25.58 – seventh) and Smith (25.66 – eighth) also competed in the finals.

The women finished the meet in seventh place overall with 58.5 points, only 3.5 back of Holy Cross for sixth. Other points on the track came in the 4x100m relay and the 400m hurdles. Davis, Keen, Erica Swinton and Smith placed fourth in the relay, and they did it in a new school-record time of 47.39. The foursome were a heartbeat away from the podium, as they were only four-thousandths of a second out of third-place Bucknell and four-hundredths behind second-place Army West Point.

Tessa Broholm earned a point in the hurdles, taking eighth place with a new PR time of 1:03.88 (seventh-fastest in school history). The women’s final point was courtesy of an eighth-place result for Laura Oh in the discus (130’ 4”).

The men ended the conference meet in sixth place with 28 points. In addition to McGriff’s triumph in the discus, additional individual points were picked up today by Thomas Day, Jarrel Bobb and Patrick Corcoran.

Day finished sixth in the 3000m steeplechase, with his time of 9:16.83 just off of his personal best in the event set two weeks ago. Bobb placed eighth in the 200m dash final (22.35) while Corcoran was eighth in the shot put (48’ 4 3/4").

The men’s last three points came in the final event of the meet, the 4x400m relay. Tom Strand, Tyler Pressl, Kia Shahideh and Michael Smitelli took sixth place with a time of 3:23.10.

Navy (263 points) topped the men’s field by over 100 points in a dominant showing, while the host Bucknell women (201.5 points) were 40.5 points ahead of second-place Boston University.

Several Leopards will continue their season next weekend at the ECAC/IC4A Championships. That meet will take place at Princeton from May 13-15.

Notes:

McGriff is Lafayette's first male track & field champion since the Leopards won four gold medals in 2012.

Alexa Kwapinski placed ninth out 27 runners in the 800m, and her time of 2:14.57 was the eighth-fastest in school history.

Caroline Harmon also entered the school record books in the 1500m. She completed the race in 4:41.37, good enough for eighth all-time on College Hill. Harmon finished 12th in this year’s race.