Tigers Put Together Solid Weekend At Ohio State, DePauw

Junior Kaileigh Bible vaulted into fourth place at the DePauw Classic, part of a solid weekend for track & field. File Photo/Brian Hodgkin

GREENCASTLE, Ind. — The Wittenberg track & field teams continued a strong indoor season with solid finishes at the competitive DePauw Classic on Saturday, following an impressive Friday outing by sophomore Victor Banjo (Sugarland, Texas/Stephen F. Austin) at Ohio State.

Banjo moved further up the NCAA Division III leaderboard in the 60-meter dash, climbing to fourth on the strength of a 6.87 at the unscored Ohio State Tune Up on Friday.

After a third place finish in the preliminaries on a time of 6.97, Banjo cut a full tenth of a second off his time to win the event over runners from Alabama-Huntsville, Ashland, Ohio State, Miami (Ohio) and other strong programs from multiple divisions.

The finish represents Banjo's best time in the event, just .06 seconds behind the national leader, Kenneth Turner of McMurry, who posted a 6.81 at the Darren Young Classic hosted by Grinnell on Feb. 11.

In the same meet, the men's distance medley relay team of senior Jarrett Cowgill (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington), senior Kyler Cowgill (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington), senior Ryan Hagen (Grand Island, NY/Grand Island) and sophomore Chris Frierson (Cedar Hill, Texas/DeSoto) recorded Div. III's 32nd best time of the season with a 10:24.45 for a finish of 3rd.

The distance medley relay mark also set Wittenberg's indoor school record, cutting more than four seconds off the previous best of 10:28.94, set by Adam Roberts, Mike Echols, Josh Courlas and Gabe Savage in 2008.

Justen Cox

At Saturday's DePauw Classic, freshman Justin Yates (Dayton, Ohio/Bellbrook) took first in the 400-meter dash on a time of 51.55 before senior Justen Cox (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) broke the school record in the pole vault with a mark of 14-1.25, besting the old record of 14-0 set by DJ Hlovchiec in 2006. Cox finished fourth in the event.

On the women's side of the DePauw Classic, freshman Leslie Goshia (Bryan, Ohio/Bryan) took second place in the long jump with a leap of 16-5.25, while junior Kaileigh Bible (Bellefontaine, Ohio/Bellefontaine) placed fourth in the pole vault with a mark of 10-2.00.

The Tigers begin the final stretch of the indoor season with the Last Chance Invitational hosted by Denison University in Granville, Ohio, on Friday, Feb. 24, followed by the North Coast Athletic Conference combined events at Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, Feb. 26.

John Strawn '07