ATLANTA, Ga. – The Wittenberg men's and women's track and field teams kicked off the outdoor season by heading south to the land of peaches for the Emory Invitational, where they each had some impressive finishes.
The men finished 19th among 28 competing schools, while the women were 24th out of 27 schools in the invitational. The hosts won the women's event while Jacksonville State won the men's, but the fellow Ohioans from Cedarville University took second in the men's list and third in the women's.
Among the banner finishes for the women was the 13th-place 400-meter dash of sophomore Frankie Bowsher (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln), followed closely in the event by sophomore Alaina Longshore (Columbus, Ohio/Franklin Heights).
Junior Jordan Crow (North Las Vegas, Nev./Palo Verde) was 10th in the 100-meter hurdles on a time of 16.16, and junior Becah Delp (York, Pa./Eastern York) was not far off at 16.29 for 13th place. Crow also finished 12th in the 400-meter hurdles, while Delp's impressive high jump earned her a fourth-place tie at 1.57 meters. Delp went on to add a sixth-place finish in the long jump at 5.18 meters to round out a solid outing.
For the men, junior Justin Fisher (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) finished 15th in the 200-meter run on a time of 23.03 and sophomore Jon Osman (Troy, Ohio/Troy) was 16th in the 10,000-meter run. The 4x100-meter relay team of Fisher, sophomore Cody Shutt (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson), freshman Brad Maiolo (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield) and junior Aaron Melsop (Westerville, Ohio/DeSales) finished 11th with a time of 43.31.
In field events, sophomore Alex Owens (Enon, Ohio/Greenon) secured sixth-place with a 3.83-meter pole vault as Melsop supplied some serious points by finishing third in the long jump at 6.80 meters. Junior Daniel Mason (Springfield, Ohio/Greenon) earned 12th-place with a shot put toss of 11.85 meters and did even better in the hammer throw by finished sixth at 38.76 meters. Senior Anthony Williams (Saxonburg, Pa./Knoch) also participated in the hammer throw and placed 10th.
Next up for Wittenberg is the Yellow Jacket Collegiate Open hosted by Cedarville University on Saturday, March 28, followed by the Tigers' own Wittenberg Invitational on Friday, April 3.
John Strawn '07