*Story by David Wahl III
MARIETTA, Ohio – The Wilmington College men's track & field team took third place at its first outdoor meet in 681 days. A long awaited meet was met with a solid result for the men, who finished with 95 points, 11 behind second place John Carroll, while Otterbein ran away with first place honors. Every Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) team participated in the meet as teams have been hungry for outdoor action.
The Quakers were busy on the track and field today, as they scored points in multiple events and received top placements as well. In the throws department, Blake Jamison took home first place in the discus, gliding the disc 135' 11" and placing fourth in shot put (46' 10.75"). Senior Joe Shuga had a solid day taking 3rd in discus reaching 125' 4" and grabbing first in hammer with a heave of 162' 9" followed closely behind by teammates Nathan Marcum in second and Andrew Pacifico in fourth.
Wilmington jumpers had a solid day, with Max Queen leading with 2nd place in triple jump (40' 9.5") and third in long jump (19' 9.75"). Anthony Gilmore was a jump shy of third and came in fourh place with a pounce of 5' 10".
The men finished the day running up the score in track events. Freshman Aidan Henson ran a new personal best in the 800-meter run en route to a third place finish in 1:58.10. Simon Heys continues his hot streaks, as he took first in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:05.88. Ryan Honkomp and Austin Wampler took a shot for the team, as they both competed in the 10,000-meter run and placed fourth and fifth respectively. Evan Whitaker rounded out the scoring on the day with a third place finish in the 3,000-meter steeple (9:41.23).
"I was very happy with results from the first Outdoor meet and our team's effort," remarked Head Track & Field Coach Ron Combs. "We didn't load the meet up, having our athletes focus on 1-2 events. Our throwers looked very strong and Aidan Henson ran a solid 800m. Evan Whitaker also had a 17 second personal best in the Steeplechase. It was very nice to have Emma Burke return for the outdoor season."
Wilmington continues the outdoor season next weekend with a five team meet in Westerville, Ohio.
