BEREA, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's track & field team tallied 111 points at the 2022 Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships to earn a third-place finish on Friday. The placement is the program's highest finish since 2013. The University of Mount Union edged John Carroll University 223-221 to win the championship.
The Fightin' Quaker coaching staff, led by Head Coach Ron Combs, earned Co-OAC Men's Track & Field Coach Staff of the Year, sharing the honor with the John Carroll University coaching staff.
"I'm so proud of both teams and the effort they gave over the last two days as we set the goal of a top-four finish in the OAC at the start of the season," Combs said. "To be honest, a top-three finish seemed unrealistic. We just had an amazing meet."
Shortly after 1 p.m., it was indeed "Hammer Time" for the WC throws squad, and they delivered. The Quakers had six of the top seven placer including OAC champion JJ Durr with a heave of 176' 2.25" on his final throw. Teammate Joe Shuga earned All-OAC honors with a runner-up throw of 174' 5.75". Andrew Pacifico (169' 5.75"), Nate Marcum (168' 8.5"), Nathan Borgan (164' 3.75") and Justin Shuga (161' 5.5") were fourth through seventh respectively.
Blake Jamison contributed his second All-OAC performance in the shot put, taking second with a heave of 47' 5". The Shuga brothers also competed with Justin's throw of 45' 7.25" placing him fifth and Joe's eighth-place mark of 44' 5.5". Brady Vilvens rounded out the field events with an All-OAC leap of 6' 5.25" in the high jump for a third-place finish and a sixth-place jump of 41' 8.75" in the triple jump.
Simon Heys finished runner-up in the 5,000-meter run by crossing the finish line in 14:30.44 to represent the WC distance crew on Friday. Dane Klosterman picked up an All-OAC performance with a third-place finish of 56.26 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles. Klosterman, alongside Anthony Gilmore and Jalaun Covington, also participated in both relays. The trio was joined by Quentin Davis to take sixth in the 4-x-100-meter relay (44.83 seconds) and Henson in the 4-x-400-meter relay for a fourth-place finish (3:27.84).
"It seemed like everyone one of our athletes had a phenomenal performance in whatever event we were doing at that time, despite the difficult conditions," said Combs. "There is nothing I would change about what we did on either side. I won't stop smiling for the rest of the weekend!"
Wilmington will send individuals to the Carius/Gregory Invitational hosted at North Central College (Illinois) next weekend.
