NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — Wagner made massive strides in 2026, winning its first NEC Outdoor Championship since 2023 and its first conference title under first-year head coach Marvin Azor.
The Seahawks scored 79 points on the opening day of competition then held off a late scoring surge from reigning champion and host CCSU, ultimately scoring 182 team points to beat out the Blue Devils by ten points. Wagner finished with nine gold medals in the meet, winning five on Sunday to secure the win.
Freshman Noah Grant was named Most Outstanding Rookie for the meet, as well as Most Outstanding Performer for the sprint events.
Junior Jack Mason earned Most Outstanding Field Performer of the jumpers for his record-breaking weekend and two-gold performance. On the track, graduate Florian Hinry earned a share of Most Outstanding Performer of the distance runners after competing in three finals across two days.
On Saturday, senior Julio Martinez, Mason and senior Dario Sina de la Fuente swept the field events, while graduate Hinry took gold in the 10,000m run to put up an early 50 points for the Seahawks.
Mason returned to jump on Sunday, leading early and passing on his fourth and fifth jumps before LIU's Phillip Baynes Jr. posted a 15.29m mark on his sixth and final jump to take the lead with a 15.29m mark to overtake Mason's 14.70m. Mason returned to his lane and put up a 15.54m jump to win his second gold in as many days.
With strong representation in the finals it did qualify for, Wagner had to score big in each event and kept that momentum up in the 4x100 relay. Senior Alex Taddeo, sophomore Julio Tatis, junior Shawn Keegan and freshman Noah Grant combined for a 41.91-second time, beating out second-place Stonehill by roughly half a second to tack on ten more points for the Seahawks.
In the 1,500m final, junior Eric Marquez added another point with an eighth-place finish on a 4:02.02 time. Hinry finished just outside the margin for team points as CCSU began to pull closer.
Grant, Taddeo, Keegan and Mason returned for the 100m dash, a massive scoring opportunity for Wagner after it advanced four from the preliminary heats. Grant and Taddeo finished first and second, running a 10.45-second and 10.51-second race to add ten and eight points, respectively. Keegan clocked in at 10.74 seconds and Mason at 10.78 to add five more points.
Senior Dante Rodney came up big in the 400m hurdles, logging a 53.85-second time to win gold as Wagner's lone qualifier in the event.
Grant and Taddeo returned to the track once again for the 200m final, which Grant won with a 21.24-second time. Taddeo took bronze in 21.58 seconds for his third medal of the day. Tatis took fifth, logging a 21.79-second time to add four team points.
In the 5,000m, graduate Justin Morris took silver behind CCSU's Aidan Budge with a 14:50.64 finish, making a late move to pull away from the pack. Hinry finished fourth in his final event of the weekend, logging a 14:57.39 time.
The 4x400 relay team took silver, with sophomore Jaden Hobbs, Tatis, junior Jonathan Carman and Rodney, running a 3:19.80 time.
Next up, the Seahawks will send a small contingent to the Princeton Elite meet on Saturday, May 16 to make a final push to make qualifying marks for NCAA Regionals.
