Vance, Tackie, and Berner Win Individual NCAC Championships

Keith Vance won his second outdoor NCAC title in the shot put (49'8").

While The College of Wooster track and field teams were not up to their typical standard, three student-athletes brought home individual titles at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships this past weekend (May 7-8) at the 20th annual meet, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University.

First-place performances by Keith Vance in the shot put (49 feet, eight inches) and Nii Djan Tackie in the triple jump (43 feet, 2.75 inches) accounted for 20 of the Wooster men’s 61 total points, which left the Scots four points shy of fifth-place in the team standings. Instead, they finished seventh of 10, narrowly behind Denison University (64.5) and Earlham College (64).

Allegheny College won the men’s meet with 213 points, while also reaching triple figures were Wittenberg University (150.5) and Ohio Wesleyan (116).

In the shot put, Vance paced three Wooster scorers. The senior’s throw was nearly a full foot in front of his nearest competitor (48 feet, 11.5 inches) and marked his fourth career championship in the event, with the others coming indoors in 2001-02 and outdoors in 2002. Not far behind Vance was freshman teammate Rick Drushal, who earned All-NCAC honors with a third-place effort (48 feet, six inches), and also scoring for the Scots in eighth-place was another first-year, Jim Sliwinski (43 feet, eight inches).

Drushal, a second-team all-league honoree in football last fall, picked up his third All-NCAC certificate in the discus, placing third in that event (139 feet), too. Also in the discus, sophomore Marco Garcia was sixth (134 feet) and Vance seventh (133 feet, six inches).

Tackie’s triple jump championship marked the second of the junior’s career, as he also won the indoor title (43 feet, 11.5 inches) this past winter. His outdoor leap was more than a foot farther than the runner-up (41 feet, 11 inches).

Rounding out Wooster’s all-conference performers on the men’s side were sophomore Chris Taft, who crossed the line third in the 800 meters (1:56.59), and freshman Tim Presto, who earned third in the 1500 meters (4:07.67).

Also on the track, junior Matt Linman scored in two events, taking eighth in both the 5000 (16:32.36) and 10,000 meters (34:14.30), while freshman Rob Kelm posted a fifth-place effort in the 110 hurdles (16.54).

Jill Berner was the bright spot for the Wooster women’s team, which placed ninth with 33 points, one-half point out of eighth. Denison won the women’s competition, totaling 190 points in edging Allegheny (140) and Ohio Wesleyan (128.5).

Although Berner was short of her personal best (11 feet, one inch), her mark of nine feet, 11.75 inches was plenty for the sophomore to win her second career NCAC championship. Also in the outdoor pole vault, the Scots’ Kate Legg, a sophomore, scored with a sixth-place showing (eight feet, six inches).

Wooster’s other all-conference honoree was sophomore Becca Scina, whose javelin heave of 106 feet, 10 inches was third-best.

The Scot women’s team’s remaining points came via two relays as well as sophomore Julie Draper, who came in sixth-place in the 3000-meter steeplechase (12:14.02), junior Heather Reed, who finished seventh in the 100-meter hurdles (16.86), and junior Emily Moore, who was eighth in the 1500 meters (5:06.31).