Throwers Lead Wooster to First-Place at Kenyon

Katie Dale

The throwers on The College of Wooster track & field team paved the way for the Fighting Scots to win the women’s portion of this past Saturday’s seven-team Kenyon Classic and the men to a runner-up finish.

The Wooster women scored 158 points overall, with 74 coming in the four throwing events, edging out Otterbein College (154.5) and Capital University (144) for the team title.

Individually, Katie Dale won both the shot put (34 feet, 3 inches) and hammer throw (94 feet, 8 inches), setting a school record in the latter, and Ali Drushal took top honors in the javelin (98 feet, 11 inches). Dale was nearly a triple-winner as she also came in second-place in the discus (102 feet, 5 inches). The Scots’ third key scorer in the throws was Victoria Peterman, who was runner-up to Dale in both the shot (30 feet, 8 inches) and the hammer (85 feet, 11 inches) and third in the discus (92 feet, 5 inches).

Just like Dale, Drushal was a double-winner, with her other victory coming on the track. She crossed the finish line exactly one second ahead of her closest competition in the 400-meter hurdles, registering a time of 1:07.61.

Wooster’s other individual winner on the women’s side was Jill Berner in the pole vault (11 feet, 1.75 inches), while in other action, Katie Wieferich was edged by John Carroll University’s Ellie Fernandez in a dual of two of the region’s top runners, as Fernandez won the 1500 meters in 4:41.76 to Wieferich’s 4:45.37. Also taking second on the track for Wooster was Ashley Zervos in the 5000 meters (19:34.38).

The Scot men scored 123 points, just off of Capital’s pace (149) but slightly ahead of third-place Denison University (117) and Otterbein (108). Fifty-five of Wooster’s points came from its throwers.

Rick Drushal won both the shot put (46 feet, 8 inches) and the discus (138 feet, 7 inches) and took third during a school-record effort in the hammer throw (125 feet, 10 inches). Complementing him were Steve Zumbrun, who produced a runner-up effort in the javelin (133 feet, 1 inch), and Marco Garcia, who was third in the discus (127 feet, 7 inches).

Among the Scots’ other top performers Saturday were Taylor Delhagen, who came in second in the 5000 meters (15:42.73), and Matt Jensen, who ran his way to a third-place showing in the 110 hurdles (15.51).

This coming week, Wooster will host the Wooster Classic on Friday afternoon. (April 28).