MARIETTA – The Wilmington College men’s and women’s track and field teams both finished fourth Saturday at the Marietta Invitational indoor meet.
The Fightin’ Quakers men’s team was the top NCAA Division III team to place at the meet. The women were the second Div. III squad, behind Capital University.
For the women, a trio of Quakers scored points in the 3,00-meter run led by Allison Helmke in sixth place (12:03.84). Katie Hughes (12:24.65) and Savannah Rhodes (12:46.1) followed in seventh and eighth places respectively.
Helmke also scored a fifth-place finish in the mile run with a time of 5:58.66. Scoring points in the 1,000-meter run was Kayci Johnson (3.50.74) with a fourth place finish. In the 800-meter run, Brooke Gibbons took third place (2:44.31) while Kelly Rice earned a fifth-place finish (2:57.36).
Emma Burke won the 500-meter dash in a time of 1:27.73, good enough to qualify for the OAC meet. In the 500-meter run, Cheyenne Rhodes took second place (1:30.56) just missing the mark to qualify for the OAC meet. Sidney Fields qualified for the final in the 55-meter hurdles and placed seventh in the final.
Kayli Sullivan placed in both throwing events, sixth in weight throw (39-4) and eighth (32-7.75) in shot put. The Quaker 4-x-200-meter relay team of Fields, Miranda Gibson, Abby Spirk and Cheyenne Rhodes took third place (2:02.66) while the 4-x-400 team of Burke, Gibson, Cheyenne Rhodes and Amber Larotonda earned a fourth-place finish (4:37.33).
On the men’s side, Austin Wampler took home eighth place (17.31.66) in the 5,000-meter run while Josh Cyrus scored a sixth-place finish (2:56.30) in the 1,000-meter run. Taton Bertsch was fifth in the 800 (2:06.2) and Elliot Philimore was sixth in the 500-meter run (1:13.42).
Adam Knaub represented the Quaker sprints by finishing in seventh place (6.88) in the 55-meter dash. He also teamed with Philimore, Elorm Dogbey and Aaron Koch to win the 4-x-200-meter relay (1:37.20).
Wilmington’s 4-x-400-meter relay team of Knaub, Philimore, Bertsch and Koch earned a third-place finish (3:44.38).
In field events, Joe Shuga finished second in the weight throw (46-8.25) and took fourth in the shot put (42-8). Andrew Pacifico and Josh Miller finished fourth (42-0) and fifth (40-11.75) in the weight throw. The marks of both Shuga and Pacifico are Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) qualifying.
The Quakers take to the track again next Saturday at the Jessica Starks Open.
