ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Wilmington College men's track & field team scored five All-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) performances on the final day of the 2023 OAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted at Kehres Stadium at the University of Mount Union on Friday.
The Quakers' hammer throws squad swept the podium and had four of the top eight finishers. JJ Durr won the OAC title with a heave of 192' 5" while Nathan Borgan (183' 6") and Nate Marcum (177' 11") rounded out the All-OAC performances for WC. Senior Andrew Pacifico also scored the team three points with a sixth-place heave of 172' 2". In the shot put, Mike Soltis took fourth with a throw of 48' 8.75" while Justin Shuga (48' 0.5") and JJ Durr (46' 4") placed sixth and eighth respectively.
Brady Vilvens rounded out the field events by picking up All-OAC honors with a season-best mark of 6' 6.25" in the high jump, which placed him runner-up in the event. The Wilmington High School alumnus also earned the Quakers three points in the triple jump with a sixth-place leap of 43' 3".
Dane Klosterman started up track events for WC on Friday with a pair of scoring performances in hurdle events. Klosterman finished seventh (15.65 seconds) in the 110-meter hurdles and eighth (57.72 seconds) in the 400-meter hurdles.
Simon Heys earned his second All-OAC honors in as many days, placing runner-up in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 14:31.87. Alex Phillip of John Carroll University broke his own record to cross the finish line in 14:16.73. Teammate Noah Tobin scored the team two points by crossing the finish line in 14:56.07 to finish seventh.
As a team, Wilmington finished fifth with a team total of 84 points, 40 clear of sixth-place Baldwin Wallace University. The host Purple Raiders won the title with 238 points. John Carroll University (153 points), Ohio Northern University (99 points) and Otterbein University (95 points) rounded out the top four teams.
The Quakers will send individuals to last chance meets in the coming weeks with hopes of improving times for qualification to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the end of the month.
