York County Wins Men’s Track & Field YSCC Championship
Springfield, MA – York County Community College won its first Yankee Small College Conference championship in school history with a victory by its Men's Track and Field team. The Hawks earned 129.5 points to narrowly edge out Hampshire College, which finished second with 120 points at the event held at American International College.
Rounding out the field, the University of Maine at Augusta finished in third place on 85 points, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences took fourth with 83, Central Maine Community College was fifth with 64.5 points, Vermont State University Randoph ended in sixth with 54, and NHTI completed the field in seventh with 12 points.
York County was led by runners Gavin Sampson and Landin Napolitano. Sampson, a freshman out of Massabesic High School, took first place in the 800 meters with a time of 2:09.41, 1,500 meters (4:29.30), and 5,000-meter run (17:02.6), earning himself YSCC Men's Track Athlete of the Year honors for his performances. Napolitano, a first-year out of Marshwood High School, finished first in the 200 meters in 23.22 seconds and 400 meters with a time of 52.02 seconds. He had to settle for second in the 100-meter dash with an 11.73 second time, losing out to Daniel Tewogbade of UMaine-Augusta by one one-hundredth of a second (11.72).
The pair also helped the Hawks win both of the relays. YCCC beat out CMCC in the 4x100 meter relay with a time of 46.21 seconds. In the 4x400 relay they finished ahead of Hampshire with a time of 3:49.32.
Hampshire went one better by winning six individual events at the conference championships, making it a great showing for the Black Sheep in the final athletic competition before the school's closure at the end of the school year.
Jumping proved to be a specialty for the team. Senior William Krebs won the hurdles with a 17.92 second time in the 110-meter hurdles and 59.94 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles. Fellow senior Jamih Griffin took both the long jump, with a best mark of 5.62 meters, and the triple jump, at 11.59 meters. Aaron Lyunbansky, also a senior, blazed through the most grueling event of the day, the 10,000 meters. He finished in 38:43.04 to secure max points. Finally, a freshman also finished on top for Hampshire. Ethan Dryden beat out senior teammate Mark Wing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10.11.57.
UMaine-Augusta got a fantastic showing from Kayden Ames, which helped pip ACPHS for third place at the meet. The senior thrower dominated the shot put, discus, and hammer throw, winning all three events by more than a meter of distance. His 41.50-meter effort in discus was just below his school record set earlier in the year. He beat teammate Zach Rollins in shot put with a best of 12.73 meters and reached 37.75 meters in hammer throw. That secured him the YSCC Men's Field Athlete of the Year award.
Meanwhile, Tewogbade added to his 100-meter dash victory by also winning the high jump. The London, England native broke his own school record by clearing 1.97 meters, making the junior a perfect two-for-two winning events he entered.
The final individual events belonged to the smaller team of VTSU-Randolph. The Knights took home two first place medals. Matthew Dangler won the pole vault competition, clearing 3.65 meters for the win. In the javelin, two teammates battled for the top spot. Gavin Clark-Viloa narrowly defeated fellow freshman Braden Wright. His best of three attempts reaching 40.53 meters ahead of 40.48 meters for Wright.
Athletes will next prepare for the final event of the season, the 2026 USCAA Track & Field National Championships, held at Indiana University of Pennsylvania on April 25th.