CONWAY, Ark. – Michael Galatas led the Millsaps men's track and field team to a remarkable fifth place finish at the program's first SCAC Championships in 2010 at Hendrix College by claiming two individual titles and earning SCAC Men's Track and Field Athlete-of-the-Year honors over the weekend.
With only seven student-athletes competing, the Majors came away from the meet with two individual titles, four second place finishes and had five different participants record team points.
Galatas claimed individual titles in the 200m dash (22.45 seconds) and 110m hurdles (15.63 seconds) while also finishing second in the 100m dash (11.10 seconds) and was a part of the 4x100 and 4x400 relays that finished second.
The team of Galatas,
Bruce Pears,
Christian Broussard and
Cameron Varnado competed in both relays and held a late lead in the 4x400 until the team from DePauw University edged them out down the final stretch.
Their time of 3:23.70 was still the fastest time the foursome turned in this season by over four seconds.
Varnado picked up All-SCAC honors with a second place finish in the long jump while Pears joined him in earning team points with a fourth place mark of 6.54 meters, .01 off receiving All-SCAC recognition.
Varnado held the lead in the long jump until Robert Steele of DePauw beat him on his final attempt of the event.
In the triple jump, Varnado earned four more team points with a fifth place finish and narrowly missed reaching the finals in the 100m, 200m and 400m races.
Lloyd Gray ran the 10,000m run for the first time this season and finished with an impressive time of 35:28, which was good enough to place tenth in the event.
Gray also ran well in the 5,000m run finishing 25th with a time of 17:19.
Despite finishing near the back of the pack,
Tim Gillis ran well in the 1500m run against one of the toughest fields in conference history to finish 20th overall and placed 25th in the 800m dash.
Bryce Haddad had a superb day in the field events for the Majors recording personal best marks in all three events in which he participated (shot put, discus throw and javelin throw).
With his fifth place finish in the javelin, Haddad picked up four team points as the only Millsaps athlete in the throwing events.
Haddad's throw in the shot put was within one foot of earning another team point but settled for a ninth place finish with a personal best throw of just over 40 feet.
“Every single young man competed to the very end and gave it their all each step of the way” head coach
Andy Till said. “This was a special weekend for our program and what an amazing honor for Mike to share with his teammates.”
Led by Galatas' 32 points, Millsaps finished in fifth place out of 10 teams, with 65 team points, in just its first year sponsoring the sport.
Rhodes College won the program's first SCAC men's track and field title since 1996 finishing with 162 team points, 22 ahead of second-place DePauw University while three-time defending champion Trinity University was fourth.