WESTERVILLE — The Wilmington College men’s track and field team had its highest Ohio Athletic Conference finish in a decade Saturday at Otterbein University.
The Quakers were fifth overall with 48 points. Mount Union won the meet with 217.5 points.
Simon Heys (Wilmington High School graduate) had an electric performance on the day placing top three in two events. Heys breezed through the line in the 5,000-meter run in 15:04.82 receiving third place and podium honors. Like clockwork, Heys came back in the 3000-meter run and took third place as well with a time of 8:38.85 also receiving podium honors for this mark.
he Quakers started the day strong on the field side, specifically the throws. Joe Shuga blasted a personal best of 56-9.25 in weight throw to place second in the conference followed close behind by teammate Andrew Pacifico who also crushed a personal best of 53-1 to place him fourth in the conference. The throws squad did not slow down there with sophomore Blake Jamison taking second place in shot put with a toss of 48-2.75 and Shuga having a seventh-place toss of 45-0.25.
The men had a few great showings on the jumps side as well with Max Queen placing eighth in triple jump with a leap of 40-6.25 and Anthony Gilmore taking fifth place honors in high jump with a jump of 5-11.5.
A few athletes that performed well, but fell short of placement points were Chas O’Connell in pole vault with a personal best of 12-0. In the 5,000-meter run, freshman Noah Tobin and Ryan Honkomp set personal bests running 15:50.06 and 16:13.95 respectively, and Aidan Henson (East Clinton) set a season best in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:09.61.
To cap the day, Wilmington sent three relays to the line and each one of the relays scored points for the team. First, the distance medley relay of Eric Reynolds, David Wahl, Tanner Creager (Blanchester High School) and Evan Whitaker finished in seventh place with a time of 11:05.82. The 4×200-meter relay of Queen, Wahl, Gilmore and Reynolds took sixth place with a season’s best time of 1:37.35. Finally, the 4×400 relay consisting of Henson, Gilmore, Reynolds and Wahl closed the day with a sixth-place time of 3:38.03.
“It wasn’t our prettiest day, but I thought the guys battled all day long,” WC head coach Ron Combs said. “Fifth place was the team goal, and we put up 48 hard-fought points to get the job done. I am very excited to return every member who scored for the men today.”
Wilmington will look forward to the start of outdoor track season with an opening meet at Marietta College on March 20.
