*Story by David Wahl III
BEXLEY, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's track & field team won 10 events and earned a runner-up finish at the Rick Meindl Last Call Meet hosted by Capital University on Sunday. The Fightin' Quakers finished with 128 points, eight behind Ohio Northern University (ONU), which won the meet. Host Capital came in third with 57 total points.
Wilmington started off the day strong with ten top three finishes in field events. Chas O'Connell put the men on the board with a third place finish in pole vault (10' 8"). In addition, Max Queen took first place in long jump with a leap of 19' 11" and Aidan Henson finished close behind in third with a jump of 18' 9.25". Anthony Gilmore and Queen went 1-2 in the high jump making it over the bar at 6' and 5' 10.75" respectively. Shortly after, Queen and Gilmore both finished top three in triple jump landing in the sand at marks of 39' 7" and 36' 7" respectively.
Wilmington throwers had a big day in both shot put and weight throw. The Quakers finished 1-2-3 in weight throw with Senior Joe Shuga leading the charge with a heave of 53' 0.75", Andrew Pacifico finishing right behind with a toss of 52' 8.25" and Nate Marcum closing it out in third with a throw of 50' 6.75". In the shot put, Blake Jamison took home the honors with a mark of 48' 2.5" and Joe Shuga closed out the day with a throw of 42' 4.25".
Wilmington did not slow down on the track side of the scoring either. To start off the running, Austin Wampler (17:06.35) and Sam Eastes (17:54.99) went first and third in the 5000-meter run respectively, and shortly after in the mile, Evan Whitaker took first place in a time of 4:36.74 and following close behind was senior Ryan Honkomp who placed fourth with a time of 4:41.98.
Wilmington continued to roll and had two top three finishers in the 500-meter dash, Aidan Henson took first (1:09.61) and David Wahl claimed third (1:15.96). In a tight race, Evan Whitaker won the 1,000-meter run crossing the line in 2:42.82 and finishing in third was freshman Tyler Parks crossing in 2:45.79. Coming off of a big weekend the previous week, Simon Heys placed first in the 800-meter run clocking in at 2:01.99 and freshman Eric Reynolds charged across in 2:07.52 for third place.
To wrap up the eventful weekend, Wilmington freshman Noah Tobin took fourth in the 3000-meter run (9:21.44), and the men's 4x400 meter relay, led by Henson, Wahl, Gilmore and Reynolds, finished in a close second clocking in with a time of 3:43.38.
"I thought the team made some good progress this weekend at Capital," Head Men's Track & Field Coach Ron Combs stated. "A Lot of people on the team had season bests. We had some breakthrough performances in a few events that may give us some scoring opportunities at the OAC meet in two weeks."
Wilmington will return to Capital University next weekend to wrap up the indoor regular season.
