SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's track & field team turned in 15 scoring performances at the HCAC (Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference)-NCAC (North Coast Athletic Conference)-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Challenge hosted by Wittenberg University on Saturday.
The Fightin' Quakers finished with 61 points in fifth place, four behind fourth-place Earlham College. The University of Mount Union won the meet with 313 points while Wabash College was second with 99 points. Host Wittenberg placed third tallying 84 points.
A third of Wilmington's scoring performances came from field events. Max Queen finished third (21' 4") in the long jump and fourth (6' ¾") in the high jump. In the later, Anthony Gilmore also leaped (6' ¾") and finished fifth. Joe Shuga's sixth-place mark of 48' 4" in the weight throw and Blake Jamison's seventh-place hurl of 44' 5 ½" in the shot put rounded out the Quakers' performances in track events.
In track events, distance events carried the day for Wilmington. Simon Heys, for the second consecutive weekend, broke the school record in the 3,000-meter run, competing the race in 8:37.32 to finish runner-up to an unattached runner. Evan Whitaker placed 11th, but scored points due to unattached runners, crossed the finish line in 9:01.44.
Three individuals – Taton Bertsch (15:54.40), Gage Clemens (16:04.26) and George Rickett (16:08.74) – placed third, seventh and eighth respectively in the 5,000-meter run. David Wahl's time of 2:52.21 earned a fifth-place finish in the 1,000-meter run while Josh Cyrus scored a sixth-place finish in the 800-meter run by crossing the finish line in 2:06.04.
The Quakers had a trio of teams score in the 4-x-400-meter run.
Wilmington returns to action at the Joe Banks Invitational hosted by Ohio Northern University on Feb. 1.
