GRANVILLE, Ohio – The Ohio Wesleyan University men's track & field team was at Denison all weekend, competing in two different meets: the Big Red Invitational on Friday, and the NCAC Outdoor Combined-Events Championship on Saturday and Sunday.
Highlighting the weekend was
Michael Strange earning all-conference recognition for a second place finish in the decathlon on Sunday.
BIG RED INVITATIONAL
While the Big Red Invitational was not scored, the Battling Bishops still made sure to put their names at the top of the leaderboards, turning in 22 top-five performances.
The Bishops started strong with three top-five times in the 100-meter dash.
Ryan Tripp took the top spot with a 10.65, followed by
Joel Adade and
Jaeden Jackson in third and fourth with identical 10.91s that needed a tiebreaker to be settled.
Adade was also in the top five in the 200-meter dash, finishing fifth with a 22.30.
Jacob Blubaugh and
Lucas Weaver headlined the distance contingent for OWU, taking second and fourth in the 1500-meter run. Blubaugh crossed in 4:01.33 for second. Weaver finished at 4:07.30 for fourth.
The Red and Black swept second through fifth in the 400-meter hurdles with
Jayson Dyer,
Logan Patterson, and
Logan Bier all finishing within a four tenths-of-a-second of each other. Dyer recorded a 58.46 for second, followed closely by Patterson in third at 58.82, and Bier in fourth at 58.89.
Chinedu Melenu nabbed fifth with a 1:05.73.
Bier also took third in the 110-meter hurdles at 16.21.
Mack Fincham and
Daren Styer secured first and third in the pole vault. Fincham finished in the top spot with a vault of 4.25 meters. Styler recorded a vault of 3.84 meters for third.
Jackson took second in the long jump at 6.17 meters.
Melenu was second in the triple jump at 12.18 meters.
The shot put saw two Bishops in the top five in the form of
Peter Ortiz in second and
Ayden Clary in fourth. Ortiz threw for 13.51 meters while Clary threw for 12.49 meters.
Ortiz also took third in the discus at 42.10 meters.
OWU would finish first, second, and fifth in the hammer throw. Clary led the way with a mark of 49.55 meters, followed by
Austin Roberts at 45.49 meters, and
Andrew Bentz at 43.53 meters.
Dominic Brown took the top spot in the javelin at 54.79 meters.
NCAC COMBINED-EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP
Michael Strange and
Michael Hess continued the competition in Granville on Saturday and Sunday, starting off OWU's efforts for the NCAC Championship with nine team points at the NCAC Outdoor Combined-Events Championship. Strange finished second in the event and earned All-NCAC honors with 5988 points. Hess was eighth, earning 5222 points.
Strange's best event was the 100-meter dash where he took the top spot with an 11.12, earning 834 points. He also finished second in the discus, and third in both the 110-meter hurdles and the pole vault to tack on 1871 points. His discus flew for 36.35 meters while he vaulted 3.95 meters and ran the hurdles in 16.50. Strange took fourth in the long jump at 6.01 meters for 589 points, fifth in the 400-meter dash at 52.08 for 721 points, and sixth in the high jump at 1.76 meters for 593 points. He was eighth in both the shot put with a mark of 10.31 meters for 504 points, and javelin at 37.33 meters for 404 points. His 1500-meter run was done in 5:15.83, finishing ninth for 472 points.
Hess secured a victory in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.12, earning 719 points. He was also third in the 1500-meter run with a 4:51.54, earning 609 points. His 52.53 in the 400-meter dash was good for sixth and 702 points. Hess was eighth in each the 100-meter dash at 11.66, the high jump at 1.70 meters, and the discus at 31.04 meters, earning an additional 1748 points. Finally, he finished 10th in the javelin at 35.58 meters, 11th in the long jump at 5.35 meters, 13th in the pole vault at 2.55 meters, and 14th in the shot put at 7.93 meters to tally another 1910 points.
UP NEXT
The Battling Bishops will be in full force at the NCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday, hosted by Kenyon in Gambier.
