Wilmington, Ohio – April 2, 2011 – The Heidelberg University men’s track and field team continued its impressive start to its 2011 outdoor season with a strong showing amongst Ohio Athletic Conference foes at the annual OAC Black Split Meet hosted by Wilmington College.
The men’s team scored in all but two events en route to bringing home the team championship with 203 points. The Berg outdistanced itself from runner-up Wilmington by 83 points. Wilmington finished with 120 points and was followed closely by Ohio Northern University at 119. Otterbein University and Capital University rounded out the field with 101 and 63 points, respectively.
Heidelberg won nine events and started the day out sweeping the top-three spots in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Dustin Kuess (Coldwater, Ohio / Coldwater) took home the championship in a time of 10:11.11 and was backed by Logan Leis (Zanesfield, Ohio / Benjamin Logan) (10:14.76) and David Kindall (Sullivan, Ohio / Black River) (10:18.57).
Bringing home two titles for the men was Nate Davis (Dayton, Ohio / Stivers). He cleared 6’8” in the high jump for first place and leaped 21’3.25” in the long jump to claim the top spot. His mark in the high jump is a provisional qualifying mark for the 2011 NCAA Division III Championships, while his first place mark in the long jump outdistanced second place by over a foot.
Frank Medina (Wakeman, Ohio / Western Reserve) paved the way in the throwing events. He took home the top spot in the shot put with a toss of 46’2.5”. Medina also stood third in the hammer throw (122’8”) and in the discus (125’3”).
Added depth in the field events came from a variety of areas. Adam Bumb (Alvada, Ohio / New Riegel) was third in the triple jump (37’10.5”) and sixth in the long jump (18’5”), while Brett Pickens (New London, Ohio / Western Reserve) was fourth in the javelin throw (131’0”).
Justin Burnett (Springfield, Ohio / Northwestern) and Seth Robertson (Burton, Ohio / Newbury) finished one-two in the 200-meter dash. Barnett crossed the finish line in 22.74 and was followed closely by Robertson at 22.77. Providing depth in the 200 was Gibril Kamara (Westerville, Ohio / Central) with a fourth (23.34). Also taking home a top finish was Terrence Horton (Pickerington, Ohio /Pickerington) and Jordan Karnes (Edgerton, Ohio / Edgerton). Horton finished first in the 800-meter run in a time of 1:58.60 and Karnes was first in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:46.51. Joining Horton in scoring in the 800-meter run was Jacob Hoffman (Shelby, Ohio / Shelby) (2:06.20) in sixth, while Gareth Graver (Enon, Ohio / Greenon) (15:57.76), John Gogle (Sunbury, Ohio / Big Walnut) (16:08.03) and Kevin Neel (Wellington, Ohio / New London) (16:15.10) finished third, fifth and sixth, respectively in the 5,000-meter run.
Heidelberg’s final two championships came in the 4x100-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay.
Claiming runner-up honors on the track was Drew Avsec (Geneva, Ohio / Geneva) in the 1,500-meter run (4:11.49), Joe Yoder (West Liberty, Ohio / West Liberty Salem) in the 110-meter hurdles (15.03), Robertson in the 400-meter dash (50.02) and Kamara in the 100-meter dash (11.18). Rounding out the scoring was Hoffman with a third in the 1,500-meter run (4:11.83) and Burnett with a fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.45).