Fairfax, Va. - The UMBC men's track and field squad capped off a tremendous spring season by placing second out of 27 teams at the 2025 IC4A Championships, held this past weekend at George Mason University. UMBC, the America East runner-up, finished with 107 points and was only outscored by Navy (128 points).
Sophomore sensation
Alpha Balde broke UMBC's 28-year record in the 200 meters as he surpassed his head coach,
David Bobb, at 20:46 to win the crown on Sunday. Balde took the lead at the turn and won the race easily by over half a second. It was the 26th-best performance in the NCAA this spring.
UMBC's 4x800 relay squad also established a new program mark, capturing the event in 7:24.14. Freshman
Joseph Ensor, graduate student
Mark Unger, freshman
Justin Banks, and sophomore
Tyler Edson dominated the race by over seven seconds.
Junior thrower losif Papa and distance specialist Edson continued to add to their personal awards mantle. Papa took the gold medal in the discus (54.38, 178-05), and Edson triumphed in the 800 meters (1:49.37).
Senior
Marquis Miller built on his sensational year by taking home the silver medal in the 400 meters with a time of 46.93.
The Retrievers scored major points in both the 1,500 meters and the 5,000 meters, as the squad placed three runners inside the top ten. Banks finished third in a personal-best time of 3:50.91 in the 1,500 meters and was followed by sophomore
Sofiane Compaorg (3:51.46, 3rd, PB) and freshman
Grayson Ruffner (3:54.10), 8th, PB). Senior
Cameron Hindle placed fourth in the 5,000 meters (14:46.58), and freshmen
Daniel Danilovitz (14:50.49) and
Kieran Mischke (15:00.28, 9th, PB) also scored.
UMBC's 4x400 relay finished with a bronze medal as they crossed the line in 3:15.46. The quartet comprised Miller, freshman
Justin Febles, Compaorg, and freshman
Damon Dukes.
Sophomore
John Saltysiak picked up the team's final medal with a third-place result in the grueling 10,000 meters with a time of 32:52.81.
Other standout performances were turned in by: graduate student
Ethan Hart (shot put, 4th, 16.45 meters, 53-11.75), Febles (400 meter hurdles, 4th, 53.91, PB), senior
Brendan Cave (3,000 meters, 4th, 8:46.42), and sophomore
Scott Gersten (8th, javelin, 56.33, 184-09).
Several Retrievers will compete at the NCAA East Regionals at the University of North Florida (Jacksonville, Fl.) from May 28-31.
