TIFFIN, Ohio – The men's and women's indoor track and field teams opened their season early this year, running at the non-scoring Tiffin University Open at the host's Heminger Center on Saturday.
The early start gives the Tigers plenty of time to tune up for their next meet, the Otterbein University Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 19, and gave head coach Craig Penney plenty of optimism for the season.
"This was a good first step into the schedule," Penney said. "We've made a big improvement from where we were last year at this time."
Headlining the meet was a victory in the men's 4x400 medley relay, posted by junior Chris Frierson (Cedar Hill, Texas/DeSoto), freshman Laike Wallace (Washington Court House, Ohio/Washington), freshman Ben Ampudia (Marion, Va./Marion) and sophomore Justin Yates (Dayton, Ohio/Bellbrook) on a time of 3:31.34.
Yates went on to add third-place honors in the 400-meter dash on a time of 51.34, and Wallace tacked on a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles on a time of 8.96, improving from fifth place in the preliminaries.
The Tiger women collected two second-place finishes, first from freshman Brea Medlock (Galena, Ohio/Big Walnut) in the 400-meter dash on a time of 1:01.00, followed by a 2:34.48 performance in the 800-meter run for freshman Megan Bittinger (Cincinnati, Ohio/Cincinnati Christian).
Senior Shawna Johnson (Uhrichsville, Ohio/Claymont) also ran the first leg of a fourth-place finish for the 4x400 relay team, joining freshman Jordan Crow (North Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde), freshman Lauren Morabito (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) and Medlock.
John Strawn '07