Men And Women Take Fourth At GLIAC Championships, Vicars Honored
The University of Findlay men and women's track and field team completed the GLIAC Championship on Friday, May 3 in Ashland, Ohio.
Derrick Vicars led the team, earning the GLIAC Field Athlete of the Year Award – and for good reason. Vicars set a new school record as GLIAC champion in the shot put with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 64'04.50. He also took fourth in the hammer throw with an NCAA provisional qualifying toss of 203'01.
In addition, to Vicars' feat in the shot put, Darren Bass, Taylor Miller and Marcus Vicars finished in the top 10. Bass placed third with an NCAA provisional qualifying heave of 57'04.75, while Miller took fourth with a provisional qualifying mark of 56'11.25, and Marcus Vicars took ninth with a provisional qualifying mark of 55'05.75.
In the triple jump, Glen Forsythe and Colin Thomas took fifth (46'09.50) and sixth (46'04.75), respectively. Darren Johnson also took eighth in the event with a mark of 45'11.25.
In men's running events, the 4x400-meter relay team of John Guagenti, Johnson, Michael Travis and Dillon Webster placed second with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:12.80.
Individually, Guagenti took third in the 400-meter dash with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 47.44, as well as fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.78.
Tim Sanders was also in the mix, finishing seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.42.
On the women's side, Jessica Rowland smashed the school record in the hammer throw and was crowned GLIAC champion with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 210'03. She also finished fifth in the shot put with an NCAA provisional qualifying heave of 46'04.75. Kendra Averesch took seventh in the shot put with a provisional qualifying mark of 45'04.25.
In women's running events, the 4x400-meter relay team of Maud Sanmiquel, Christine Zimmermann, Shelby Stump and Kirsten Gaerke finished fourth with a time of 3:51.43.
Individually, Sanmiquel also placed second in the 400-meter hurdles with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:02.48, and eighth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.73.
Zimmermann took fourth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.63, while Deidre Latham finished sixth in the same event with a time of 2:20.25.
Pam Showman, who took third in the heptathlon yesterday, placed third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.11, while Alexa Stults had a pair of eighth place finishes in the 1,500-meter run (4:48.46), and the 5,000-meter run (18:31.57).
As a team, the men and women both finished fourth.
The Oilers men ended the meet with 81 total points while the women finished with 70. The Ashland men took top honors with 199 points while the Grand Valley State women were crowned champions with 220 points.