PEMBROKE, N.C. - The Embry-Riddle men's track & field team claimed the 2018 Peach Belt Conference Championship on Saturday afternoon, making it a clean sweep of the track & field titles as the ERAU women also won the PBC Championship. After a three-year NCAA II transition process, the Eagles were finally eligible for postseason competition and the Blue and Gold took advantage, taking an 18-point lead after Friday out to a dominant, 29.5 point win over host UNC Pembroke.

Embry-Riddle tallied 234.5 total points, shattering the PBC meet record, including a whopping 139.5 points on Saturday, finishing well in front of UNCP's 205 points and nearly doubling third-place Nova Southeastern's 120.

The Eagles made an early statement with five throwers earning points in the hammer, led by conference champion Zach Farner who won the event with a throw of 54.02m, breaking the conference meet record in the process. Michael Haynes came in second with his 46.45m effort, while Kenny Onubogu (41.03m), Zackary Carpenter (39.54m) and Terrence Bobet (37.72m) finishing fourth, sixth and eighth, respectively. The hammer event resulted in 27 points for teh Blue and Gold.

Steve Wijayasinha (1.91m) and Connor Guinn (1.81m) finished in second and fifth, respectively in the high jump before the Eagles again dominated a throwing event in the shot put with five throwers earning points for Embry-Riddle. Farner placed second with a 14.84m effort, followed closely by Lonnie Marts' 14.56m toss. Zackary Carpenter (13.85m), Terrence Bobet (13.05m) and Luis Rivera (12.70m) went 6-7-8 to round out the scorers and conclude the field events.

Lelei Kipngetich gave the Eagles a huge boost in the 5,000m, upsetting the top-seeded and heavily favored Silius Kipkoech of UNC Pembroke, running a 15:10.88 to beat Kipkoech by two seconds and earning 10 points for the Eagles' team score. 

UNC Pembroke got a little closer in the team race in the 110m hurdles, taking the top four spots, but Connor Guinn came in fifth in 15.74 for ERAU and in the 400m Marts placed second in 49.05 to help off-set the Braves efforts.

The 800m race pushed the Eagles ever closer to the title as Calahan Warren, Stephen Dietz and Drew Hart placed first, third and fourth, respectively for the Blue and Gold. Warren's 1:55.22 time led a very tightly packed top-four, separated by a little over one second. Dietz finished in 1:55.71 while Hart ran a 1:56.49.

Marcus Pryor got the Eagles six points in the 400m hurdles with a 55.24 time and Nick Peters came in eighth to earn a point in 58.61 seconds.

Marts collected points for the third time in the 200m, placing fifth in 21.88 seconds.

Embry-Riddle erased all doubts about the team race in the 1,500m, taking the top three spots to clinch the conference title. Warren, Kipngetich and Dietz were dominant, going 1-2-3 for 24 total points, posting times of 3:59.90, 4:00.70 and 4:01.00, respectively.

The final event of the meet was the 4x400m relay where the squad of Marts, Marcus Pryor, Andrew Vendrone and Warren placed sixth overall in 3:39.90, accounting for three points and the 234.5 team total final.

Farner was named the PBC Field Athlete of the Year, while Kipngetich earned PBC Freshman Track Athlete of the Year. Peters was the Eagles' All-Sportsmanship Team representative.

The team title was the 10th conference championship in program history for the Blue and Gold as ERAU won nine crowns in The Sun Conference (2007-15).

ERAU will next compete at the North Florida Invite on April 27 in Jacksonville, Fla.