By: Jenia Freewalt, sports information assistant
ADA, Ohio- On Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, the Beavers took a short drive to Ohio Northern University to compete in their last regular-season track meet. It was a lighter weekend for a lot of the Beavers as they began preparing for the HCAC Championships, but it was still a very successful day!
With the Beavers beginning to reach the peak of their training, there were a number of notable performances that weekend.
Sophomore Coen North (Denver/North) took home the gold in the javelin with a huge PR of 52.06 meters!
Fellow sophomore Paige Smith (Springfield/Kenton Ridge) set a PR in the women's hammer with a mark of 34.74 meters!
Setting a season best in the men's hammer was junior Bowden Jerome (Canal Winchester), throwing an impressive mark of 26.58.
In the high jump, junior Olivia Rider (Celina) had an excellent performance, placing 5th with a big jump of 1.40 meters! Rider also performed well in the long jump, placing 4th overall with a mark of 4.31 meters!
Also winning his event was junior Joey Bonham (Vanlue), dominating the men's high jump competition with a big leap of 1.92 meters!
Setting a new PR in the triple jump was senior Malik Waters (Lima/Perry) with a distance of 12.63m.
For the distance squad, junior Cole Kropka (New London) ran a speedy time, coming across the line with a PR time in the men's 1500 of 4:16! Freshman Grant Beasley (Versailles), also set a new PR in the 1500 meters, finishing with a time of 4:35.
Senior Jenia Freewalt (Delphos/St. John's) had a successful last 1500m race, running a season best time of 5:44!
Taking first place in the 110 meter hurdles was senior Desmond Gist (Detroit, Mich./Trenton), flying across the line with a time of 14.45!
Junior Jace Nutt (Miamisburg/Valley View) had a great season opener! Nutt ran a time of 16.69 in the 110 meter hurdle finals, which was only .2 seconds off from his previous best time.
Success was found in the men's 4x100, where Dontrayell Thomas (Madera, Cal./Edison), Russell Lough (Wintersville/Indian Creek), Simon Shalk (Galion) and Gist finished only a tenth of a second off of the school record. This stellar performance placed them 2nd overall with a time of 42.44!
Taking 4th in the women's 4x100 with a time of 53.81 was a squad comprised of Kinsey Myers (Stryker), Amelia Adams (Celina), Olivia Rider (Celina) and Kailea Kerr (Manchester, Ind.)!
"I think the team performed well overall despite the cold conditions," said Head Coach Ben Markison. "It was a light week for the team with conference on the horizon. We've set ourselves up well, now all we have to do is show up and perform when we travel to Manchester for the HCAC Championships."
-BEAVERS-