Kevin Tapper ’15 has been finishing at the top of the standings frequently this spring, and there was no slowing down from April 4 to 5 at the Colonial Relays. In an event where the Bison finished first with 101.20 total points, Tapper earned an impressive 19 points (eight team points, 11 individual points).

Tapper earned his first point of the weekend in the 400-meter race. He recorded a time of 48.90, only 1.20 seconds behind the top time, to finish in eighth place out of 79 runners. Tapper also helped the Bison earn eight points in the distance medley relay on the second day of competition. The team of Tapper, John Westwood ’16, Zachary Moon ’16, and Andrew Garcia-Garrison ’15 finished in third place with a lightning pace of 9:58.03.

“I know that I need to continue training hard if I want to be in contention to score in my individual events, and this is the case for the majority of the team right now,” Tapper said. “I would say as a team our greatest strength is our depth. The meet was very focused on relays, and we had a team in almost every relay that was able to score points. We also owe a lot to our throws group.”

Tapper’s best performance, however, came in the triple jump. Tapper defeated all 13 of his competitors to take home the gold with a personal-best distance of 47-07.00. His leap earned the Bison 10 points and was the sixth-best in program history for that event. Tapper performed better than student-athletes from Rutgers, Shippensburg, and Rider, all top finishers in the Colonial Relays.

Tapper excels in a variety of events, including 200 meter, 300 meter, 400 meter, 500 meter, long jump, and triple jump, leading to many spots on the school’s all-time rankings. Still, he knows that the entire team must perform well if it is to win more meets, especially with the large number of events that the Bison compete in.

“As a team, we still have a long way to go before championships. This weekend put us in a good position to accomplish this and we are all excited to see how far we can go,” Tapper said.

Bio:

• Year: 2015
• Hometown: Elkridge, Md.
• High School: Calvert Hall
• Major: Biomedical Engineering

Colonial Relays Stats:

• 400 meter – Eighth out of 79
  
• 4x200m Relay – Second Place
• Triple Jump – First Place