*Story by David Wahl III
WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's and women's track & field teams will send a few of the top athletes for the Quakers to the Jesse Owens Classic. Athletes outside of Division 1 had to reach qualifying marks to compete at the Ohio State hosted event.
The Schedule: The field events will start at 1:00 PM and track will follow at 4:30 PM.
The Teams: Wilmington will be joined by Alleghany, Ashland, Baldwin Wallace, Ball State, Cedarville, Cleveland State, Denison, Eastern Michigan, Findlay, Franciscan (Ohio), Huntington, Indianapolis, IVC Elite, Kent State, Malone, Mount Union, Mount Vernon Nazarene, Northern Kentucky, Ohio, Ohio Christian, Ohio Dominican, Ohio Wesleyan, Otterbein, Roberts Wesleyan, Shawnee State, SISU, Southern Illinois, St. Vincent (Pa.), Walsh, Westminster (Pa.), Wheeling, Wright State, Xavier, Youngstown State.
The Coach: Ron Combs continues his 24th season as the head coach of Wilmington's men's and women's track and field teams. Combs has been named Coach of the Year, twice by the Heartland Athletic Conference, and once by the OAC. In 2002, he led the men's indoor team to a sixth-place finish at NCAA DIII Championships.
Who to Watch:
For the women, Emma Burke will lead things off in the first event of the day as she competes in the 400-meter hurdles. Kayli Sullivan threw herself into the meet with a great start to the season in hammer throw. Madison Dietz will close things out as she qualified in long jump with a season best jump last weekend.
The men will be led off by the number one Division III hammer throw squad in the nation. The team of Joe Shuage, Andrew Pacifico, Nathan Marcum, JJ Durr, Justin Shuga and Nathan Borgan look to put their number one ranking to the test against a slew of Division 1 talent. Simon Heys will close things out on Friday for the group as he is set to run in a D1 stacked 5,000-meter race. Heys is no stranger to running against the best as he holds six individual school records for the Quakers. Blake Jamison will perform solo on Saturday in discus as the Senior is matched against elite competition.
Coverage: Meet information is available - visit the link above. Results will be available after the conclusion of the meet.
Social Media: Wilmington athletics is represented on Facebook (Wilmington College Athletics), Twitter (@DubCQuakers) and Instagram (@DubCQuakers). Follow all the happenings of Wilmington College on social media by using the hashtag "#WeAreDubC".
Up Next: The remainder of the Quaker squad will head to Cincinnati on Saturday for the MSJ Invitational.
