Tigers Open Outdoor Portion Of Season At Emory Invitational
Laike Wallace, Justin Fisher, Becah Delp, Brea Medlock and Jordan Crow all post outstanding early-season marks that stack up well nationally.
ATLANTA, Ga. – The Wittenberg Tigers kicked off the second half of the 2016 season with a trip to the Peach State to participate in the Emory Invitational against a large field of teams representing all divisions of the NCAA and NAIA.
After competing in events that included as many as 75 student-athletes, the Tiger men ranked 15th in the team standings with 21 points and the Tiger women ranked 31st with 4.5 points. The team scores are deceiving, however, as Wittenberg competitors regularly turned in quality marks and times that didn't score team points.
The Tigers' top individual performance was turned in by senior Laike Wallace (Washington Court House, Ohio/Washington). He placed second in the 400-meter hurdles with a blistering time of 53.38, which currently stands as the top time in all of NCAA Division III.
Senior Justin Fisher (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) placed sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 13.84 meters. Like Wallace, Fisher ranks No. 1 in NCAA Division III after the first weekend of the outdoor season.
Junior Jon Osman (Troy, Ohio/Troy) finished fifth in the 10,000 meters with a solid time of 33:56, junior Alex Owens (Enon, Ohio/Greenon) took seventh in the pole vault, and freshman Eric Cospy (Trotwood, Ohio/Madison) rounded out the Tiger men with top-10 finishes with a fifth-place finish in the discus.
On the women's side, Wittenberg was led by senior Becah Delp (York, Pa./Eastern York) with a seventh-place finish in the high jump with a mark of 1.55 meters. Additionally, Delp placed 12th in the triple jump with a mark of 11.24 meters that broke the school record and ranks fourth nationally.
Also scoring for Wittenberg was senior Brea Medlock (Galena, Ohio/Big Walnut), who took sixth in the 200-meter dash. Her time of 25.90 ranks ninth nationally. Also of note was the performance of senior Jordan Crow (North Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde), who placed eighth in the 100-meter hurdles and 10th in the 400-meter hurdles, and her time of 15.28 ranks eighth in NCAA Division III.
"It is very early in the season and not all Division III teams have competed, but a lot of these performances are top 10 in the country," said Head Coach Paris Hilliard. "They all will have to improve their marks as the season goes to hold their positions."