March 25, 2017

 

CEDARVILLE, Ohio - The Beaver track and field teams took a trek to Cedarville University on Saturday, March 25 for the Yellow Jacket Collegiate Outdoor Opener. While the track segment of the team garnered much of the applause last week, field athletes stole the show this weekend with a trio of champions. 

 

Junior KYLE KNEZOVICH (Utica) was again the Beaver athlete of the day. In preparation for his plans to contest the All-Ohio Multi Event Championship next month, Knezovich previewed some of the decathlon events in which he will compete. In his first collegiate long jump competition, Knezovich jumped to a 5th place finish in the field of 23 with a leap of 20' 9.75" (6.33 meters). An hour later he sampled the high jump where he cleared 5' 10" (1.78 meters).  He capped his day with a PR performance in the 110 meter high hurdles with a time 15.73 seconds, good for 7th out of 23. 

 

As has often been the norm, freshman STANLEY WILLIAMS (Sterling Heights, Mich./Chippewa Valley) had a top-notch day. Williams dominated the men's long jump competition with a winning leap of 22' 00.25" (6.71 meters) and later took to the track for a PR 200 meter 22.32 second 8th place finish in the field of 70 competitors. Williams also posted a speedy 100 meter PR of 11.12 seconds. 

 

Junior D'NAE REESE (Columbus/Upper Arlington) opened her outdoor season in fine style after a bye week following her NCAA appearance earlier in the month.  Reese nicely covered the 49 woman field in the discus, winning with a throw of 133' 8" (40.74 meters) after having earlier placed 6th among 54 in the hammer competition with a distance of 139' 02" (42.42 meters). Both marks put Reese well-placed for competition in the upcoming All-Ohio and HCAC championship meets in April. 

 

The final champion of the day was none other than Bluffton's own Coach Jason Fisher ('11). In select meets, Fisher balances his coaching responsibilities with his own competition and today came up big, crushing the men's hammer field of 46 with a distance of 196' 10" (60.00 meters). Not only is Fisher a quality competitor, he knows how to hone his athletes' skills as well as senior DIVAUNTA SPEARMAN (Sandusky/Willard) threw his second consecutive hammer PR, 152' 9" (46.56 meters) to improve his championship qualification standings and mentored junior ERICK BENGE (Monrovia, Ind./Monrovia) to his own PR and double championship qualification mark of 146' 07" (44.68 meters).  A variety of other PR marks were thrown throughout the day in hammer from sophomore MAELINN DELONG (Archbold/Bryan) and freshmen RILEY WILCOX (Killbuck/West Holmes), LIAM HOPPE(Greenwood Twp., MI/Yale) and ETHAN VANDERMARLIERE(Georgetown, Ky./Scott County) while in shot put, freshman Keion Johnson qualified for the All-Ohio championship with Spearman and Wilcox posting PR performances.

 

On the track, senior JACK FISHER (Norwalk/St. Paul) posted a double championship qualifying time of 4:07.69 in the 1500 meters, placing 7th among 69. PR's were achieved in the short sprints as well. Sophomore KETURAH WARLICK (East Point, Mich./Clintondale) posted a PR 26.61 seconds over 200 meters, finishing 7th among 38 competitors while CAM WALKER(Palmetto, Ga./Newnan) and RICARDO FLORESTAL ( Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) improved their times in both the 100 and 200 meters. 

 

"It was quite an interesting and exciting day," said Head Coach Karen Brandt. "The assistant coaches have been discussing with Kyle the possibility of revisiting the decathlon from his freshmen year. After I was convinced his heart was truly behind the idea, we decided to use today as a testing ground. Kyle proved his mettle and next week will take on the throws events that are part of the decathlon. I'm very proud of Stanley, D'Nae and Coach Fisher for posting wins and appreciate the dedication and hard work it has taken for all the PR performances that were achieved today."

 

The Beavers will travel to Otterbein University on Saturday, April 1 to compete in their April Fool's Invitational. Field events start at 11 a.m. with track events beginning at 12:30 p.m. 

 

-BEAVERS-