Tigers Rack Up Plenty of Top Finishes in Busy Weekend
Wittenberg's men's and women's track and field teams split up for the weekend, sending competitors to three different meets over the course of two days. On Friday, a group of Tigers competed at the OWU Open at Ohio Wesleyan and the Heartland Invitational at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and on Saturday, other team members competed at Tiffin University for the Robinson Family Open.
The only events that the Tigers competed in at the Heartland Invitational, which featured mostly NCAA Division I teams, were the 400 meters and 5000 meters. In the 400 meters, Cameron Elliott (Springfield, OH / Springfield) and Jack Kittle (Chagrin Falls, OH / Chagrin Falls) took the fifth and sixth spots as they were separated by just one-hundreth of a second with times of 48.08 and 48.09 seconds, respectively. In the 5000 meters, Lukas Rieben (Clayton, OH / Northmont) was the top Tiger finisher in the 10th spot, with a time of 14.47.93.
At the OWU Open, the Tiger men won a two events and finished in the top five in several others. In the 60-meter dash, Nate Warburton (Jensen Beach, FL / Jensen Beach) took first in a time of 6.99 seconds. Riley Payne (Hamilton, OH / Trenton Edgewood) and Omega Waller (Canal Winchester, OH / Independence) were third and fourth, respectively, in the 60-meter hurdles with times of 8.56 and 8.65 seconds. Toriano Johnson (Loveland, OH / Kings) added a third-place finish in to 200-meter dash with a time of 23.48 seconds. The winner of the 400 meter dash, with a time of 52.76 second was Owen Bier (Elyria, OH / Midview).
The Tiger men ended their weekend at the Tiffin Robinson Family Open. Joelon Lyons (Sidney, OH / Sidney) earned the first top-five finish for the Tigers as he took fifth in 23.59 seconds in the 200 meters. Neal Godfrey (Columbus, OH / St. Francis DeSales) had another good performance in the long jump with a leap of 6.88 meters to earn a third-place finish. Jeremiah Owusu (Columbus, OH / Thomas Worthington) was just outside of the top five as he tied for sixth in the high jump with a mark of 1.88 meters.
The Tigers will compete next weekend as they host the Wittenberg Invite on Saturday, Feb. 21, and celebrate senior recognition day with events starting at 11:00 a.m.