Both Scot Teams Take 7th at 13-Team Wooster Invitational

Nii Djan Tackie

The College of Wooster men’s and women's track and field teams held the annual Wooster Invitational, the first home meet of the season, this past Saturday (March 27), and both finished 7th of 13 teams.

The Scot women totaled 37 points, while Malone College was the team champion (164), finishing with nearly twice as many points as runner-up Ohio Wesleyan University (86). The men’s division was much closer with Walsh University (118.5) prevailing narrowly over Thiel College (110) and Malone (100.5), while Wooster scored 50.5 points.

Wooster's women’s team scored equally well in both field and running events, but was paced again by sophomore Jill Berner, who won the pole vault competition. In fact, her height of 10 feet, four inches set a stadium record. Berner was complemented in the event by classmate Kate Legg, who came in 5th overall (8 feet, 4.25 inches), while also in the field, newcomer Becca Scina took sixth in the javelin (85 feet, five inches.)

Strong performances by the Scots came in an array of distances on the track, led by junior Heather Reed, who placed sixth in both the 100 (17.40) and 400 hurdles (1:14.18). Other sixth-place finishers included sophomore Laura Barnhart, freshman Katie Wieferich, and senior Vanessa Georgeson in the 400 (1:03.00), 1500 (5:04.04), and 3000-meter steeplechase (13:18.63), respectively.

Wooster’s men's field unit made a strong showing Saturday as well. Senior Keith Vance and freshman Rick Drushal were runner-up (45 feet, 2.5 inches) and third-place (44 feet, 7.5 inches) finishers in the shot put, respectively, and Drushal grabbed an additional third-place in the discus (132 feet, two inches).  Another senior, Marc Bryson, came in fourth overall in the javelin competition with a throw of 149 feet.

On the track, freshman Robert Kelm had the Scots’ top finish, crossing the line third in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.43. Two fifth-place finishes were turned in by freshman Tim Presto and sophomore Chris Taft in the 800 (1:59.43) and 1500 (4:09.58) meters, respectively, while senior Patrick Wynne and sophomore Mark Ballinger each took sixth — Wynne in the 3000-meter steeplechase (10:45.00) and Ballinger in the 400 meters (51.24).

Wooster will next be in action on Saturday (April 3) at the Ohio State Relays.