SPRINGFIELD — The Wilmington College track and field teams turned in 29 scoring performances at the HCAC (Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference)-NCAC (North Coast Athletic Conference)-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Challenge hosted by Wittenberg University Saturday.
The men 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 (6-0.75) in the high jump.
Anthony Gilmore also cleared 6-0.75 and finished fifth in the high jump. Joe Shuga’s sixth-place mark of 48-4 in the weight throw and Blake Jamison’s seventh-place hurl of 44-5.5 in the shot put rounded out the Quakers’ performances in field 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, completing the race in 8:37.32 to finish second only to an unattached runner.
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 (2:06.04).
The Quakers had a trio of teams score in the 4-x-400-meter run.
For the women, WC finished with 65 points in fifth place, one behind fourth-place Hanover College. The University of Mount Union won the meet with 317 points while host Wittenberg was second with 100 points and Heidelberg University took third with 86 points.
Four of Wilmington’s scoring performances came in field events. Kayli Sullivan placed third in both the weight throw (47-7.75) and the shot put (37-4.5). Jenna Hennaman vaulted 10-0.5 to earn runner-up honors in the pole vault while Keva Cox took third in the high jump with a leap of 4-11.
In track events, Milena Wahl, Katie Hughes and Sydney Yontz scored for the Quakers’ distance runners. Wahl took second in the 3,000-meter run (10:46.4), Hughes fourth (20:03.53) in the 5,000-meter run and Yontz sixth in the mile run (5:48.52).
Yontz (2:42.58) also was one of two Quakers, Kayci Johnson (2:54.84) being the other, to score in the 800-meter run as the two took fifth and eighth place respectively.
Emma Burke scored in two events for Wilmington, taking seventh in the 200-meter dash (27.83 seconds) and fourth in the 500-meter run (1:23.68). Amber LaRotonda finished once spot behind her teammate in the 500 in 1:29.42.
The Quakers also had two teams score in the 4-x-400-meter relay.
Wilmington returns to action at the Cedarville University Indoor Invitational Feb. 7.
