CINCINNATI — The Wilmington College men’s track & field team opened the 2023 calendar year by winning the MSJ Invitational Saturday.
The WC women’s team finished fourth.
The Quakers accumulated 111 points to finish 28 points ahead of runner-up Franklin College. Hanover, Thomas More and Xavier University followed.
The weight throw was Wilmington’s best event on the day as the Quakers went 1-5. JJ Durr (17.92 meters) won the event while Justin Shuga (15.15 meters) came in second and Nathan Borgan (15.95 meters) was third. Nate Marcum and Andrew Pacifico rounded out the top five with heaves of 15.92 and 15.57 meters respectively. Shuga also competed in the shot put, winning the event with a throw of 14.79 meters.
In jumping events, Wilmington High School graduate Brady Vilvens won the triple jump (12.09 meters) and finished second in the high jump (1.87 meters) while Brayden Jones won the pole vault (3.33 meters).
In track events, another WHS grad Simon Heys (4:22.18) and Noah Tobin (4:29.51) finished first and third respectively in the mile run while Tate Yoder was runner-up in the 3,000-meter run by crossing the finish line in 9:10.99. In middle distance, Eric Reynolds’s time of 2:06.21 was good for fourth place. In the distance medley relay, the four aforementioned Quakers teamed up for a time of 10:52.74 to win the event.
In the women’s meet, the Quakers finished fourth out of seven teams with 59 total points. Thomas More won the event with 114 points while Xavier finished second with 67 points. Hanover was the top NCAA Division III school with 67 points.
In track events, Kylee Schafer won the 200-meter dash in 27.78 seconds and earned a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter dash by crossing the finish line in 8.25 seconds.
In field events, Madison Dietz won both the triple jump (9.31 meters) and long jump (4.60 meters) while Sadie Devore’s mark of 1.80 meters in the pole vault placed her third. In throwing events, Lexi Grice won the weight throw with a heave of 13.81 meters and placed third in the shot put (10.61 meters). Teammate Abby Lodewyck took fourth in the weight throw with a toss of 12.58 meters.
Wilmington heads to Wittenberg University for the Steemer Showcase next Saturday.
