February 9, 2018
DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Bluffton University track and field team started Meet One of its split meet competition Friday night at the Defiance College Dick Small Memorial Invitational while those who qualified will compete Saturday in the All-Ohio Championship. Tonight's athletes set the tone for a potentially outstanding weekend.
The performance of the night went to junior MAELINN DELONG (Archbold/Bryan) who broke the school record in women's shot put with a mighty heave of 38' 5.50" to finish 3rd in a competitive field of 14. Posting wins on the track in quality fields of ten and seven respectively were junior KETURAH WARLICK (East Point, Mich./Clintondale) in the 200 and freshman SARAH HEYDINGER (Tiro/Buckeye Central) in the 60 hurdles, Heydinger in a PR time, while sophomore TORI BOWEN (Wapakoneta/Elida) and freshman GABE MAKIN (Elida) won their respective pole vault competitions. Closing the evening's events was the men's high jump where senior KYLE KNEZOVICH (Utica), in his first high jump of the season which qualified him for the HCAC championships, came home 3rd with a clearance of 5' 11.25". Sophomore JOHN JONES (Cincinnati/Walnut Hills) put up a PR in the shot put while junior JONAH ECKERT(Terre Haute, Ind./West Vigo) netted PR's in both the 800 meters and the mile..
A number of PR performances were turned in throughout the night in final tune-ups for the upcoming HCAC championship. Sophomore ARIE COX (Ontario) and freshman KIMMIE HETRICK (Fremont/Ross), honing their speed for the long-distance events, both posted life-time bests at the mile and 800. At 3000 meters, sophomore TAMI GROFF(Versailles) improved her time as did sophomore CIANA HOSTETLER (Sugarcreek/Garaway) over 200 meters while freshman DONNY JOHNSON (Hamler/Patrick Henry) PR'd in the preliminary round of the 60 dash. Freshman KEENAN KINNEL (Troy) also improved in the high jump, setting a PR and qualifying for the HCAC championship meet.
"I was really pleased with the efforts of the group of athletes in competition tonight," said Head Coach Karen Brandt. "Some of these people will compete tomorrow in other events in which they qualified so I was especially pleased to see them come out tonight and get after it. Keturah in particular, despite being in three events at All-Ohio tomorrow, wanted to try to improve her 200 time for a better lane assignment next week at HCAC. Check that box off! A coach can't manufacture that kind of foresight and attention to detail. And Maelinn's school record was huge. D'Nae Reese has been the queen of the throws here at Bluffton for the last few years and to see Maelinn eclipse D'Nae's mark, after surgery this past spring and months of rehab, is so gratifying. What's great about this team was seeing the text of genuine excitement D'Nae sent Maelinn. That's character."
A total of 18 athletes, the most in school history, will travel to Westerville Saturday to Otterbein University for the All-Ohio Championship, a qualifiers-only meet. The Beavers will contest a total of 5 relays and 10 individual events. Both track and field action begins at noon.
-BEAVERS-