CMS Men's 4x400 Relay Finishes Second with Fourth-Fastest Time in DIII History

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 4x400 relay team of Christian Campbell, Nick Teresi, Ellis DelVecchio and Jamie Cockburn ran a 3:07.82 in the finals of the NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday, the fourth-fastest time in NCAA Division III history, but finished a close second to Mt. Union, which set a division record with a 3:07.24 at St. John Fisher.

Campbell also earned All-America honors twice individually, with a fourth-place finish in the 200 meters and an eighth-place finish in the 100 meters. The Stags ended up with 14 points from the three events, tying them for 16th place in the team competition. 

The CMS 4x400 team matched the highest relay finish in program history, tying the second-place finish of the 4x400 relay team in 1988 (Mark Messana, Derek Elmore, Kurt Hocker, Tony Gnecco) and the 4x100 relay team in 1995 (Brett Comfort, Jimmy Pham, Felix Wong, Stephen McGhee). The top 4x400 relay time in CMS history coming into this year was a 3:12.34 set last year (3:12.60 was the previous record set in 1988), while this year's team had a top time of 3:10.56 during the regular season.

The Stags peaked at the right time and performed at their best in the NCAA Championships, taking 1.3 seconds off their season-best time in prelims on Thursday with a 3:09.26, before taking another 1.44 seconds off it in the finals. Their finals time was almost five seconds faster than any CMS quartet had ever clocked before this year. 

Matt McBride of Mt. Union finished second in the 400 meters individually earlier on Saturday with a 46.04, and he took the baton for the anchor leg trailing by just three-tenths of a second, running a 45.79 split to allow the Raiders to come from behind for the narrow win in NCAA record-time. Although CMS finished second, the Stags ran a faster time than any Division III 4x400 relay team since 2005, and broke the old NCAA meet record of 3:08.10. 

Campbell's fourth-place finish in the 200 meters in 21.05 seconds matched his fourth-place finish in the 200 at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championships and was the highest a Stag has ever placed in the event. He became the first Stag sprinter to earn All-America honors since Kendall Grant finished seventh in the 100 meters in 2002.

In addition, Campbell matches the highest finish for any CMS men's sprinter in program history, tying the fourth-place finishes of Messana (1989) and Comfort (1995) in the 100 meters. Messana's fifth-place finish in 1988 was the previous best for the program in the 200 meters.

Campbell added an eighth place finish in the 100 meters with a 10.48, which was faster than any other Stag has ever run it, after he broke Messana's record earlier this year with a 10.47.