MEADVILLE, Pa. - The Allegheny men's track and field team earned a pair of event titles on the opening day of the 2018 North Coast Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships, held at the Robertson Athletic Complex.

Senior Andre Bryan opened the day by taking gold with an impressive performance in the long jump, while Matt Svetz closed out the evening with a dominating victory in the 10,000 meter run.

As a team, the Gators totaled 29 points on the first day of the two-day event, and sit in fifth place.  Pre-championship favorite Ohio Wesleyan closed day one with the lead with 61 points, while Oberlin sits in second at 43 points, DePauw third at 41, and Wabash fourth at 35.50.

After earning a total of three All-NCAC citations in the long jump over the first three years of his career, Bryan won the gold for the first time in his final NCAC long jump with a leap of 6.89 meters (22'7.25"), the second-best effort of his career, to win by just over two inches. 

Svetz picked up his first career conference title in the final event of the marathon first day, as he posted a time of 31:47.75 in the 10,000 to top the 19-runner field by 43 seconds.  The Gator junior broke away from a tight pack after the race's third lap, and would gradually add on to his lead before coasting to the victory.  He was one of two Allegheny runners to score in the event, as Seth Conard placed eighth with a time of 32:58.99, a new career-best by 23 seconds.

Junior Kurtis Williams led the Allegheny throws contingent, as he narrowly missed the podium in the shot put with a throw of 14.03 meters (46' 0.5"to place fourth.  Freshman Noah Parker continued his solid rookie campaign by adding a sixth-place finish in the event, throwing 13.57 meters (44'6.25"), a new personal record by 11 inches.

The Gator sprinters shined in the afternoon prelims, as Allegheny will have three representatives in Saturday's 100 meter finals, and two runners in the 200.

Allen Baugh led the way in the 100, clocking in at 10.876 seconds to qualify second, less than a hundredth of a second ahead of teammate Bryan, who qualified third,  A third senior, Bennett Falck, posted a time of 10.98 seconds to place fifth in the prelims.  All three times were new career-bests for the veteran trio.

Baugh and Falck would then go on to tie for the fourth spot in qualifiers for the 200 meter run with times of 22.314 seconds, a personal record by three-tenths for Baugh, and a half-second for Falck.

Senior Carter Smith will represent Allegheny in the 800 meter finals on Saturday after running a time of 1:57.31 to take fourth in the prelims and establish a new career best by 1.5 seconds.

Saturday's finals will begin at the Robertson Athletic Complex with field events at 10 a.m., while the first running events are scheduled for 2:15 p.m.