It was less about Prefontaine and more about pre-calc.

Felix is a nine-time placewinner on relay teams at Centennial Conference track and field championship meets. He earned a bronze medal with the indoor 4×800 team in 2011.

Felix, a two-year co-captain on the Muhlenberg cross country team and a member of the track and field team, “ran” in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition in December. Administered by the Mathematical Association of America every year since 1938, the Putnam is a 12-question, six-hour test generally considered to be the most difficult math exam in the world.

And when the results came in a couple of weeks ago, Felix got some good news: Out of about 4,000 undergrads who took the test in the United States and Canada, he finished in the top third.

“It was a little intimidating because the median score is zero,” he said. (For those not as mathematically inclined, that means that more than half the people who take the test fail to score any points.) “I just wanted to do a little better, and I got a double-digit score.”

The whole process started with Dr. Daniel File, a visiting assistant professor of mathematics, who had taken the Putnam exam as an undergraduate at Ohio State. It had been a while since anyone at Muhlenberg had taken it, so File asked his colleagues for names of people who might be willing to try. Felix, a double major in mathematics and economics, was recommended.

Felix has competed in many races as a Mule, but his only previous foray into competitive mathematics had been with the LVAIC math team – a group of students who compete against other schools in the Lehigh Valley once each fall – the last two years. He did some practice sessions with File, and on “race day,” he sat alone in a classroom in Trumbower Hall for three hours, then took a lunch break before returning for three more hours.

“It’s not a specific type of math on the test – it’s problem-solving questions where you have to use the skills you’ve developed,” he said. “There was some probability, one of my better areas, some set theory, some really complicated uses of calculus.”

This is one of the questions on the exam Felix took, reprinted here with permission of the Mathematical Association of America. Please submit answers in the comments section below – first correct one gets a free yearly subscription to Mule Sports Daily!

The test is divided into two sections, A and B, with six questions apiece. The first question in each is usually the “easiest,” and they get increasingly more difficult after that. There are some questions that no one gets full credit on (each question is worth 10 points, with 10 for a complete solution and one for the beginning of a solution).

“I really focused on A1 and B1, and pretty much spent as much time as I wanted on those to write out the answers as best as I could,” said Felix, an eight-time (soon to be nine-time) member of the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll and Phi Beta Kappa inductee. “After that I just picked out ones I thought I might be able to solve. I read all the questions at least to see if I could work them out.”

Felix, who plans to pursue a career in actuarial sciences following graduation, hopes that he will be a pacesetter for future Muhlenberg students.

“It was a cool experience,” he said. “I wish I had gotten started a little earlier, because the more I was practicing and the more different types of things I saw, the more confident I got. I really liked it – it was unlike anything I’ve done in the classroom. After taking the actual test, I was mentally exhausted.

“Now that I’ve done this, hopefully others in the department will take the test in the future.”

For more information on the Putnam Competition, please visit this site: http://math.scu.edu/putnam/index.html

With the Centennial Conference Championships just two weeks away in wrestling and three weeks off in basketball and track, this weekend’s contests offer potential postseason previews.

Women’s Basketball at Gettysburg (Saturday, 1:00)

Here are the Centennial Conference standings heading into Saturday’s games:

• Haverford 11-2
• Johns Hopkins 12-3
• McDaniel 9-4
• Muhlenberg 9-5
• Gettysburg 8-5
• Swarthmore 7-8
• Ursinus/Washington 5-8

If the order doesn’t change, Muhlenberg and Gettysburg will face each other in the first round of the CC playoffs. But both teams, who have combined to win the last three CC championships (the Mules in 2011 and 2012 and the Bullets last year) are looking to move up in the standings and avoid the 4-5 game.

Win or lose, Muhlenberg is in great position for making the playoffs. The Mules close out the CC regular season against Franklin & Marshall (1-12), Dickinson (1-13) and Ursinus, while Swarthmore, the team with the most reasonable chance of breaking into the top five, still has to play McDaniel and Haverford.

Gettysburg is the hottest team in the CC, coming into the game on a four-game winning streak, and is 7-1 at home this season. The Bullets are holding opponents to a CC-low 32.5-percent shooting in league games; Muhlenberg is third in that category at 33.7.

The Mules won the first meeting this season, 62-57, and have taken five of the last seven series meetings at Gettysburg.

live stats/video

Men’s Basketball at Gettysburg (Saturday, 3:00)

The men’s standings show the importance of this game:

• Dickinson 11-2
• McDaniel 10-3
• Franklin & Marshall 9-4
• Johns Hopkins 9-4
• Muhlenberg 8-5
• Gettysburg 7-6
• Washington 4-9

Six teams are battling for the five playoff spots, and these two are fifth and sixth. If the Mules win, they will have a two-game lead for the last spot with four to play. A Gettysburg win throws the playoff race into a mad scramble the last two weeks of the season. Muhlenberg still has games left against Franklin & Marshall (away) and Dickinson, while the Bullets finish the regular season with tough road games against F&M and McDaniel.

Both teams are trying to rebound from losses. Gettysburg had a three-game winning streak (which included a 54-38 defeat of F&M) snapped with a 67-55 loss at Dickinson on Wednesday. Muhlenberg fell at Haverford on Wednesday but has not dropped back-to-back CC games all season.

The Mules closed the game on a 10-2 run to win the first meeting this season, 77-69. Muhlenberg has lost its last three games at Gettysburg, last year in overtime.

live stats/video

Indoor Track & Field at Frank Colden Invitational (Saturday, 9:00)

The Muhlenberg teams return to Ursinus for the first time since competing in the CC Championships there last February. One of the events to watch is the women’s 60-meter hurdles, where Ursinus’ Victoria Goodenough and Muhlenberg’s Stephanie Carnevale rank 1-2, respectively in the CC this season. At last year’s championship meet, Carnevale edged Goodenough by seven hundredths of a second to win gold en route to becoming an All-American.

Wrestling at Merchant Marine with Johns Hopkins (Saturday, 5:00)

Muhlenberg freshman Jaryd Flank will be put to the test against two of the best 125-pounders in the CC. Defending CC champion Paul Bewak of Johns Hopkins is 26-1 this season, currently ranked third in Division III. Merchant Marine’s Mike Mui is 16-4.

Four teams that are likely to make the Centennial Conference playoffs will be at Memorial Hall for a huge basketball doubleheader that highlights the first weekend of February.

Women’s Basketball vs. McDaniel (Saturday, 2:00)

It will be just like old times for these two teams. From 2004, when the Centennial Conference went to one division, to 2010, a McDaniel-Muhlenberg matchup in February usually had great playoff implications. Both teams qualified for the CC playoffs in six of those seven years, and they met in the playoffs four times.

The Green Terror (14-4, 9-3) finished under .500 in the CC in each of the last three years, but now it is back in a big way, tied in the loss column for second place. The Mules (11-7, 8-4) are just a game back, and as the playoff teams start to separate themselves out, games like this one are huge.

McDaniel comes in with a six-game winning streak that includes back-to-back 70-41 blowouts of Johns Hopkins and Washington. Muhlenberg has won six of seven since suffering a 52-45 loss at McDaniel in early January.

It could be another low-scoring game. McDaniel is second in the CC in scoring defense (51.7 points per game) and leads the league in steals per game, turnover margin and three-point field-goal defense. Muhlenberg, meanwhile, has allowed opponents to shoot just 30.8 percent from the field (24.5 percent from three-point range) and average only51.1 points over its last eight games.

Following the game, one player on each team will receive the Aril Bryant Award in memory of a Mule player who lost her life to breast cancer last summer. Please visit the Muhlenberg team page to contribute to the Kay Yow Foundation, which supports those fighting breast cancer.

live stats | live video

Men’s Basketball vs. McDaniel (Saturday, 4:00)

Four days after defeating first-place Dickinson, Muhlenberg returns home to face another first-place team in McDaniel. The Mules’ first home game in two weeks matches the hottest team in the Centennial Conference against the hottest scorer in the CC and the league’s top defense against its second-best offense.

The Green Terror (14-4, 9-2) is tied for first place in the CC and has won seven straight games. It entered the week ranked ninth in Division III in scoring defense, allowing only 60.2 points per game. The Mules (12-6, 7-4) are tied for fourth place with Johns Hopkins.

Defense won out when the two teams met in Maryland in early January. The Mules scored 30 points in the first 13:34 in opening up a 15-point lead but managed only 20 points the rest of the way as the Green Terror came back for a 57-50 win. Muhlenberg has won 14 of the last 16 series meetings in Memorial Hall.

Junior guard Malique Killing scored 38, 33 and 35 points in the Mules’ three road games, becoming only the second player in CC history to record three straight 30-point games. The seventh-leading scorer in Division III at the start of the week, he needs just 26 more points to set the CC record for points scored in the freshman, sophomore and junior years.

live stats | live video

Indoor Track & Field at Lehigh’s John Covert Classic (Saturday, 10:00)

The indoor season is moving allowing rapidly for the Mule teams: this is only their third meet of the season, yet they’re just one month away from the CC Championships. They will get to compete against Division I athletes for the first time this season at Lehigh.

Wrestling at Gettysburg with New York University (Saturday, 1:00)

The shorthanded Mules wrestling team travels to Gettysburg to compete in its second straight CC trimatch.

live stats | live video

The home openers for track and wrestling and an important basketball doubleheader in Baltimore make for a big weekend.

Indoor Track & Field hosts Muhlenberg Invitational (Friday, 3:00)

Muhlenberg welcomes DeSales, Goucher, Neumann and Wesley for its only home indoor meet of the season. Last year, Muhlenberg athletes won 12 of the 26 events. Field events begin at 3:00, running events at 6:00.

Wrestling vs. McDaniel and Stevens (Saturday, 12:00)

Muhlenberg opens its Centennial Conference dual meet season with the first of its two scheduled home tri-matches. The Mules take on McDaniel in the first match and Stevens in the third. Both McDaniel (at 133) and Stevens (at 149) bring in nationally ranked wrestlers. Coming off his impressive win at Ursinus’ Will Abele Invitational last weekend, Mule freshman Jaryd Flank will make his home debut – although since McDaniel does not have anyone at 125, his first appearance probably will be a brief one to get his hand raised.

live video

Men’s Basketball at Johns Hopkins (Saturday, 1:00)

Two teams that were defeated in the Centennial Conference semifinals last year meet for the second time this season, with Muhlenberg looking to complete its fourth season sweep of Johns Hopkins in the last six years.

In the first meeting this season, the Mules saw their 16-point halftime lead pared to three but shot 60 percent in the second half to hold on for a 91-75 win.

Muhlenberg (11-5, 6-3) and Johns Hopkins (9-7, 6-3) are currently tied for fourth place in the CC, a game behind second-place McDaniel and Franklin & Marshall and two in front of sixth-place Gettysburg. The Mules have won three of their last four following a three-game losing streak, while the Blue Jays have rebounded from a four-game skid by winning five of their last six.

A win would push Muhlenberg to 7-3 in the CC for just the second time in the last 12 years.

live stats | live video

Women’s Basketball vs. Johns Hopkins (Saturday, 3:00)

The two most successful programs in CC history meet for the second time this season, with the Mules (9-7, 6-4) looking to continue their hot streak against the first-place Blue Jays (12-3, 10-0).

Muhlenberg has won four of its last five, including Wednesday’s decisive 67-43 win at Ursinus. Hopkins had a much tougher time at Ursinus last Saturday, needing a late rally to win 71-67. Dating back to last season, the Blue Jays have won 21 of their last 23 CC regular-season games.

Hopkins scored 14 of the game’s first 17 points and nine of the last 12 to edge the Mules, 65-58, in a back-and-forth battle in the first meeting this season.

The Blue Jays hold a 24-18 all-time lead in a series that includes 11 postseason meetings. Muhlenberg has won a game in Baltimore in each of the last three seasons, last year in the regular season and in the 2011 and 2012 CC championship games.

live stats | live video

Recently, Dorf’s quickness accomplished something much more important.

On Friday, November 15, Dorf and her teammates were eating dinner in the Wood Dining Commons after practice. “Everyone was in their own conversations – it was all very normal,” she recalled.

That was until a teammate sitting diagonally from Dorf looked up at her. His eyes were red, and he had his hands crossed around his neck – the universal choking sign.

Dorf immediately jumped up, ran around the table, and gave a few abdominal thrusts. Her teammate spit out the food that was preventing him from breathing, and Dorf followed up with some pats on his back.

“He was totally fine. He actually finished his plate,” said Dorf. “I was a little shaken because I never had to do that before.

“It all happened in about 10 seconds. It was crazy. Afterwards everyone was like, wait, what just happened?”

Fellow senior Nicole Pisani was sitting to Dorf’s left but had her head turned when the whole thing started. “It really amazed me how quickly she got over there. I was sitting right next to Carolyn and when I looked she was already gone,” she said. “She jumped without any hesitation.”

Dorf has been a certified lifeguard since she was 15 and is trained in the use of the Heimlich Maneuver. It was ironic that she was called on to perform it not at a pool or beach, but while sitting down to dinner at school.

“I think I’m most proud that I was able to act accordingly,” said Dorf. “That was always my biggest fear, that when the time came I wouldn’t be able to stay cool, calm and collected – because I’m usually not.

“I was just doing what I was trained to do,” she added. “It’s nice to be recognized, but I felt like anyone would have done the same. I was just happy I could help him.”

Although Dorf remains modest about the incident, her teammates are having none of that. They were still buzzing about it the following day at Lehigh when they went to cheer the cross country team at the NCAA Mideast Regional.

“We all wanted to help but she was the one who took the initiative,” said Pisani. “Right after it happened, we were all like, Carolyn, you’re our hero!”

With If All I Had To Do Was Coach, Hackett gives readers a glimpse into the always-interesting life of a track and field coach. The first of many unforgettable anecdotes littered throughout Hackett’s first book gave him the nudge he needed to do something he never thought he would.

In 1993, when Hackett was in the middle of his nearly 10 years as an assistant coach at Syracuse, the school was set to host the high school national indoor championships. More than 1,500 athletes from all 50 states descended upon the Carrier Dome on a frozen March day. Soon, they would have nowhere to go.

An almost unthinkable 54 inches of snow fell in a 24-hour span, sending the city into a state of emergency and trapping more than 5,000 people into the field house. The roof of the Carrier Dome was let down before the governors of Rhode Island and New York and the National Guard got involved, and somehow the meet was able to go off. After that, Hackett had the story that started it all.

“That was the beginning,” said Hackett, who has coached at Muhlenberg since 1999. “People kept on saying, ‘oh, you were around and you never slept for 72 hours. Think of all the things that happened; you could write a book about that,’” Hackett recalled. “So I ended up turning that into a chapter of the book.”

The rest of Hackett’s story, however, took many years to come out. By the time he left Syracuse in 1997, Hackett had written four or five chapters of the book, but he let it sit in an envelope for more than a decade. Coincidentally, another trip to upstate New York was all he needed to dive back in.

Hackett has coached more than 50 Centennial Conference gold medalists, including pole vaulter Erin Saucier.

With his wife at Colgate’s 25^th college reunion in 2008, Hackett looked around and saw accomplished, wildly successful classmates everywhere he looked. Bob Woodruff, the television news anchor. Austin Murphy, a well-known writer for Sports Illustrated. And don’t forget SportsCenter anchor David Lloyd.

“On the way home, I said to my wife, ‘look what these people have done. What have I done?’” Hackett recalled. “That was the impetus to get the ball rolling again and finish it.”

After that, the stories came flowing out of his pen. He finished the writing process in a mere three or four months that summer.

“I started to realize I had had seven or eight incidents driving a van coming home from a meet, six or seven incidents with a bad hotel or a bunch of really interesting characters or kids that have done bizarre things,” Hackett said. “I started putting it into an outline of categories, and from there it became apparent that was the style I was going to go with. It was as if I’m sitting in a bar telling people a bunch of different stories.”

Hackett coached the women’s track and field team to a Centennial Conference championship in 2005.

After the writing process was complete, it was a matter of finding the right person to publish it. At first, the book was met with skepticism or outright rejection, but another stroke of good fortune set everything in motion.

Hackett was speaking at a clinic hosted by a good friend, who happened to be a friend of the owner of Coaches Choice Publishing. The company liked what Hackett had to say, and the partnership was born. After several years of back-and-forth exchanges, the book’s editor got involved this summer, opening Hackett’s eyes to the rigors of publishing a book.

“The writing of it was easy,” Hackett said. “It was a narrative…I had told every one of those stories a million times. The interesting part to me was the final stage, the editorial process.

“I made an assumption that an editor of a book is making grammatical changes, and nothing could be farther from the truth. She went through every story with a fine-tooth comb.”

Hackett recalls hosting recruits at Syracuse on the night of the 1996 NCAA basketball championship between the Orange and Kentucky. The way Hackett remembered it, all five of Syracuse’s starters in that game were drafted into the NBA the following year. Not so, said his editor. Further research revealed that not all of those players were drafted. After other investigations, Hackett had a perfectly accurate product.

“That was the part that amazed me, the level of investigating my editor did to verify that everything I was saying was accurate,” Hackett said.

Hackett isn’t exactly a writing neophyte. He had published articles in track and field technical magazines. He enjoyed coming up with a premise and attempting to prove it, an early precursor to his first book. In If All I Had To Do Was Coach, Hackett hopes others in the track and field community will find stories that resonate with them, that remind them of similar experiences.

Moving hurdles is one of things Hackett has to do in addition to coaching.

“I look at this book as an opportunity for me to give back to the sport that has given me so much,” Hackett said. “I’m hoping some people that are not familiar with the sport – even though the book isn’t about track, it’s about a track and field coach – will have a little more of an understanding of what college coaching is like, and what coaching track and field is like, more specifically.

“If it’s popular enough within the coaching community that a lot of people read it, I would suspect that people would start to say to me, ‘hey, that story reminds me of something that happened to our team.’”

Despite its bevy of fascinating stories, Hackett says the beauty of the book is its commonality.

“I’ve got to believe that anyone who has been coaching as long as I have has encountered similar situations,” he said. “These stories could have happened to anybody.”

Now that he’s put those stories on paper, Hackett doesn’t plan on doing it again anytime soon. Still, it wasn’t something he expected to do the first time around. As any track and field coach can tell you, the stories never stop.

“I never dreamed,” Hackett said, “of doing something like this.”

If All I Had To Do Was Coach is available at the Colgate University and Muhlenberg College bookstores, as well as CoachesChoice.com, MFathletics.com, Venuesports.com, and Amazon.

Female Athlete of the Month – Stephanie Carnevale, Track & Field

Carnevale set one school record and neared another one in three January meets. She shattered an eight-year-old record in the 55-meter hurdles while finishing first at the Muhlenberg Invitational and came within six hundredths of a second of the mark in the 55 meters. Her hurdles time was the 10th-fastest in Division III at the end of the month. Carnevale also finished fifth in the 55 hurdles at the season-opening Kutztown Invitational

Male Athlete of the Month – Kevin Hargrove, Basketball

Hargrove averaged 13.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.1 blocked shots while shooting 59.8 percent from the field in nine games, helping the Mules go 5-3 in the Centennial Conference (5-4 overall). He started the month by recording a triple-double (12 points, 13 rebounds, 10 blocks) against McDaniel, and in the second-to-last game of January, he became Muhlenberg’s all-time leader in blocked shots. Hargrove also scored a career-high 24 points in an overtime loss at Gettysburg.

We’ll start this week with one of the oldest sports at Muhlenberg, track and field. The men started competing in 1910 and the women in 1988. From shorts and t-shirts to speed suits, below is a gallery of more than 100 years of Mule track and field uniforms. Enjoy!

What sport should we do next Thursday? Respond to this post or contact us by e-mail, on Facebook or on Twitter to let us know!

We conclude the senior profiles series with Part Two of men’s and women’s track and field. Part One ran yesterday.

Andrew Henry

What’s something most people don’t know about you that they might find interesting? I have a really good memory when it comes to schoolwork, so I find myself spending a little more time watching Netflix and not so much time studying. That can upset some of teammates who spend a little more time in the library than I do.

What’s your most memorable Muhlenberg track and field memory? Winning the 800 indoors at the home meet my sophomore year.

How have you been able to manage your time between classes and being on the track team to make the Dean’s List the past six semesters? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself from 3:00 until 6:00 on a daily basis if it wasn’t for track and cross country. As distance runners, we pretty much practice year round, so having such a set schedule has allowed me to manage my time very well. Every day I know I pretty much have to go to class during the day, practice during the afternoon, and then get whatever work I need to get done after dinner.

What are your future plans? I plan on applying to veterinary school this summer and working at the Lehigh Valley Zoo during my time off. My goal is to go to the University of Pennsylvania and go on to become a zoo vet.

What’s William Lowrey like off the track? Fun loving. Will is a great friend and roommate. In the last four years, Will and I have gotten to spend a lot of time together, and honestly I could not have asked for a better partner in crime.

William Lowrey

When did you start growing your mustache? I started growing my mustache during cross country my junior year. The cross country team always lets our facial hair grow out during championship season, however, I wanted to get a jump start on the facial hair growth because my beard does not grow overnight, to say the least. After a while, my mustache just started coming in pretty nicely, and I began receiving compliments so I just kept it.

Being from Vermont, what’s your favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor? That’s a tough one, but I’ve got to go with Cherry Garcia. It’s great ice cream named after a great musician.

What’s the best part about running the steeplechase? It seems to go by really quickly. I’ve never enjoyed running the flat 3,000 indoors or the 5,000 because they seem like monotonous, painful slogs. Like cross country, however, as you progress through the steeple you’re thinking about new challenges that lie ahead of you. It takes your mind off of the pain your body is in and allows you to get competitive and race.

What are your future plans? I’m not sure right now.

What kind of person is Andrew Henry? Andy is just an overall great guy. He’s the go-to guy whenever anyone needs to talk or just wants someone to hang out with. There are a lot of smart, hard-working kids on the cross country team that place their education on a pedestal, and while Andy is one of them, his work is always secondary to his friends and teammates.

Alex Price

How have you improved on the track since your freshman year? I think I’ve learned to race a lot smarter and have gotten better with knowing my pace. No matter what the conditions are or what lane I get, I know how I should be running.

What’s your most memorable Muhlenberg track and field memory? It’s hard to pick just one, so I’d say our indoor home meets have been some of the most exciting. The field house is so small that having friends and family packed in there cheering you on made it very loud and a really fun experience.

What’s your best off-the-track memory from your time here? Even when I’m not running, cheering on my teammates is just as exhilarating. We’ve got some talented guys out there that are really fun to watch. I’m definitely going to miss supporting and yelling for them.

What are your future plans? Starting this fall, I’m going to be working for Deloitte at their Boston office.

What’s Eric Strouse like as a person? He’s definitely a true wildcard on and off the track. When you watch him run you can tell he’s giving more than 100 percent, so I really respect his passion and fun-loving spirit.

Peter Rice

When did you first realize that you were really fast? I realized I was fast right around the same time I realized I was really, really, ridiculously good-looking… I actually knew I was fast when I was little, but I didn’t start seriously running track until my junior year of high school. I really liked the personal challenge, and it was a lot of fun, so I stuck with it. Now I’m a huge track nerd.

What’s your most memorable Muhlenberg track and field memory? In my four years, our 4×100, 4×200, and 4×400 relays have had a lot of success, winning a lot of relays at the conference meets, as well as a 4×400 Penn Relays win. I’ve had a blast running with a bunch of different guys who’ve all made Muhlenberg a sprint relays dynasty.

What’s your best off-the-track memory from your time here? My best off-the-track memories are from the week that we come back early for practice before the second semester starts. There are good stories from every “track camp,” but my favorite would have to be our captains ordering Chinese food as our team meal sophomore year. It’s become a sort of tradition, and there are few things as awesome as seeing $350 worth of catered Chinese food. Yum.

What are your future plans? After I graduate, I hope to move out west to work at a ski area for a year or two, and then I want to work in advertising or marketing research, which I’ve had a lot of fun doing in class and as an independent research study during my senior year.

What kind of person is Kyle Sullivan? Kyle Boogie… I’ve been on two conference champion relays with Kyle, but he hasn’t always run track. He started out playing lacrosse, and ran track outdoors during our sophomore year. After a year off, he came back and ran all season this year. I think he brought a refreshing attitude to the track team. Oftentimes, runners are too willing to be hurt. Kyle doesn’t have a lot of background in track, so he never seemed to care about how his legs felt. If you asked him to run a race, he did it, no questions asked. He has worked his tail off this year, and has made a huge impact on a team that he was only a member of for a year and a half. Plus he’s going to Columbia next year, so I guess he’s got to be smart…

Eric Strouse

What’s the best part of being on the track team? I get to run alongside a handful of handsome men wearing short shorts while having engaging conversations about science and life on a daily basis.

What’s your most memorable Muhlenberg track and field memory? Winning the freshman time trial and watching Stuart Udis run a 1:52 in the 4×800 to win conferences my freshman year.

How have you been able to manage your time between classes and being on the track team to make the Dean’s List the past four semesters? It’s not that I am smarter than most people here at Muhlenberg… I have been able to utilize a time machine to balance my incredibly hectic and stressful schedule.

What are your future plans? If marrying softball star Jennie Finch and being a stay-at-home dad does not work out, I plan on going to dental school

What’s Alex Price like away from the track? Alex is a great guy with a kind soul, trying to match Mike Baer grade for grade.

Kyle Sullivan

How does it feel being a part of the fastest 4×100 team in school history? We’re all athletes and have that competitive edge to us, or else we wouldn’t be here. So with that disclaimer, it feels good to be the best at something. There’s no doubt in my mind that that record will be broken very soon. That’s just what happens. If it’s not broken soon, I’ll probably have to swing by and have a small chit chat with Coach Hackett to see if everything’s OK. I also feel lucky that I just so happen to be on the team at the same time as three other very fast sprinters. It was the luck of the draw.

What’s your most memorable Muhlenberg track and field memory? Probably the cross country regional meet tailgate party we had. Good times. Face paint, body paint, loud music, Italian sausages and running around yelling at our teammates to run faster. All at 10:00 in the morning.

What are your future plans? I have a civil engineering/land development/surveying internship on Martha’s Vineyard this summer where I’ll mostly be doing drafting on a computer. For the next two years I will be going to Columbia University under the 4-2 engineering combined plan where I’ll be doing civil engineering. After that I’ll have a bachelor’s in math and physics from Muhlenberg as well as a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Columbia, which will hopefully contribute towards the probability of me getting a job.

What kind of teammate is Peter Rice? I couldn’t ask for a better teammate. Pete’s a funny guy, always cracking jokes, laughing loudly, engaging everyone in his antics and never in a bad mood. It’s great because he’s also one of the hardest-working teammates I’ve ever had. He’s always the one leading the workouts, pushing the other guys, including myself, to go faster and do an extra hill run or two after we’ve already done eight of them. I think I speak for the whole team when I say Pete is an inspiration for all of us.