T30th of 99 at NCAA Division III championship

Senior Nate Newman (Chillicothe/Zane Trace) won All-America honors in the heptathlon competition and freshman Cade Richeson (Worthington/Thomas Worthington) represented Ohio Wesleyan during the second day of the NCAA Division III indoor championship meet, hosted by Birmingham-Southern College on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala.

Newman finished with 5267 points, finishing second.  Will Daniels of Central (Iowa) won the event with 5287 points.  Newman's score of 5267 broke the school record of 5155 set by Matt Hunter in 2014.  Newman was seeded 11th in the event with a score of 4917 points.

Heading into Saturday's events, Newman trailed by nearly 200 points, but inched closer in the 60-meter hurdles, winning his heat in :08.42 to post the second-fastest time in the meet and pick up 879 points.  Newman cleared 14-5¼ in the pole vault, tying for second overall and picking up 731 points to narrow the margin between him and first place to 21 points heading into the 1000-meter run, the final event.  Newman finished the 1000-meter run in 2:52.69 to record 738 points, and while he finished ahead of Daniels, the margin was not enough to affect the final standings.

On Friday, Newman opened the day with a clocking of :07.27 in the 60-meter dash, good for fifth overall and 789 points.  His leap of 21-4 in the long jump was sixth overall and added 697 points, and his throw of 41-1¾ in the shot put was fourth-best on the day and brought in 639 points.  Newman saved his best performance for last on Friday, clearing 6-6¼ in the high jump to place second overall and collect 794 points.

The All-America honors were the second for Newman in the heptathlon, following a fifth-place finish in 2017.  He was making his fourth consecutive NCAA Division III championship appearance in the event.  Newman placed 11th in 2016 and 13th in 2015.

Richeson competed in the shot put and turned in a throw of 52-1½ on his final attempt, but he missed the last spot in the finals by a margin of 4 inches.  Richeson finished 10th in the final national standings.  He was seeded 10th with a throw of 54-7.

Newman's second-place finish gave Ohio Wesleyan 8 points in the team standings, good for a tie for 30th place among the 99 schools that were represented in the meet.

Final Heptathlon Results
Final Shot Put Results
NCAA Division III championship meet results