CENTER VALLEY (PA) – Delaware Valley University junior Ta'riq Thomas won the triple jump for the third consecutive year and was named the Field Athlete of the Year for his efforts as the Aggies placed seventh out of 13 teams at the 2017 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Outdoor Championship.
 
DelVal notched 39 points over the three days of competition to finish in the middle of the pack. Widener University won the championship with 173 points, followed by Messiah College and its 163 points.
 
Thomas played a role in 25 of the Aggies points with 10 coming in the triple jump. He made it 3-for-3 at the MAC outdoors with a personal-best leap of 48 feet, 9.5 inches. That is also currently the fifth-best triple jump in Division III, nearly assuring the three-time All-American (two outdoor, one indoor) of a return trip to the NCAA Championships.
 
On Friday, Thomas was the runner-up in the long jump (23-3.50) for eight team points and added two more with a sixth-place tie in the high jump (5-7).
 
Thomas was also part of Saturday's 4X100 relay team, which included John Jones, Jake Ryan and Mike Tkach. They took fourth place and earned five points with a time of 45.68 seconds.
 
Ryan, a freshman, picked up all-conference honorable mention accolades and two points for the Aggies in the 200-meter dash as he ran a personal-best 22.66 seconds and finished seventh.
 
Fellow rookie A.J. Weisgerber earned first-team honors in the discus as his throw of 131 feet, 8.5 inches placed him third out of 20 competitors. That was six points for DelVal.
 
Yet another freshman, Thomas McCloughan earned one point and a spot on the honorable mention team in the shot put as he was eighth with a toss of 38 feet, 9.75 inches.
 
James Buggs competed in both the shot put and the discus and placed ninth (37-11.25) and 17^th (97-9) respectively.
 
The final relay team was the 4X400 quartet of Ryan, Jones, Jacob Hart and Kevin Naviloff. They took 13^th with a time of 3 minutes, 48.08 seconds.
 
Jones had a strong Friday as he was fourth in the long jump (second-team honors) with a mark of 21 feet, 11.5 inches.