WESTERVILLE - The Wilmington College men's and women's track teams competed Saturday at the Otterbein Invitational with mixed results as the men's team finished sixth out of 12 teams and the women's team finished ninth of 11 teams.

"This meet was really tough with several scholarships schools," said head coach Ron Combs. "I usually try to schedule a small, low key meet for the first meet. We have only been school for a week, so I felt like the team was thrown to the wolves a little bit. But I thought they handled it well."

Senior Alex Erwin (Springfield, OH/Northeastern) and the 4x200 relay team recorded the best Wilmington finishes. Erwin was second in the 1,000 (2:36.59), while the team of Derek Kilgo (Charlotte, NC/Royalton), Jake Sydnor (Owensville, OH/Clermont Northeastern), Leevi Stump (Mount Vernon, OH/Mount Vernon) and Jeremy Duncan (Cincinnati, OH/Archbishop Moeller) was second with the time of 1:34.17.

"I think thats a strong group that will run a lot faster in the future," said Combs. "I thought Jake Sydnor and Alex Erwin ran strong in the 400 and 1000. Both of those performances stood out for the men."

In addition to his second place in finish in the 4x200, Sydnor was third in the 400 (50.84) and was part of a fourth place finish win the 4x400 relay. He was joined by Brad Kline (Circleville, OH/Circleville), Jake Simpkins (Germantown, OH/Valley View) and Tony Goodrich (Bethel, OH/New Richmond) on the relay.

Stump added to the WC scoring with a sixth place finish in the long jump (6.59 meters) and eighth in the triple jump (11.4 meters). Sophomore Antone Truss (Yellow Springs, OH/Yellow Springs) was sixth in the high jump (1.88 meters).

Rounding out the scoring on the men's team was Goodrich fifth in the 800 (2:06.13), Simpkins fourth in the 1000 (2:38.72), Kline sixth in the 800 (2:07.08) and Duncan seventh in the 60 (7.18).

"I think the men's team has the potential to be very good, but we have a lot of work to do," said Combs. "Traditionally, we have been a team that starts off slow and progresses well throughout the season. I think this group can be very strong when the OAC's roll around."

Junior Tricia Steffen (Baltimore, OH/Liberty Union) scored in two events for the women's team. She trimmed four seconds off her personal record in finishing eigth in the 1000 (3:16.91) and then trimmed eight seconds of her PR in the mile, finishing ninth with the time of 5:28.11.

Freshman Hannah Rolf (Springfield, OH/Northeastern) also scored for the Fightin' Quakers, placing sixth in the pole vault (2.74 meters).

Wilmington competes at the Denision Invitational Saturday.