GRANVILLE, Ohio - The men's and women's track and field teams sit poised to improve off last year's marks after a strong first day of competition in the NCAC Championships. The men claimed eight points in the opening events to sit in a three-way tie for fourth place with Denison and Wooster. Meanwhile, early successes placed the women in 5th place, with strong preliminary showings to help their cause in the second day.
Highlighting the day, Wittenberg saw a pair of school records fall, as senior triple jumper Erik Larkin (Cincinnati, Ohio/Country Day) broke his own program-best mark with a leap of 45' 5.75", good for second place in the event, an All-NCAC performance, and just inches shy of an NCAA provisional distance. Larkin shared the spotlight with freshman distance standout Mary Pfeifer (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman), who shattered the 5,000 meter school record with a time of 18:30.95, almost twelve seconds better than Becky Barnes' time in the event from 2004. Pfeifer placed fourth in a deep field to help lead the women to 19 points through day one.
Joining Pfeifer in the scoring column, both freshman Darcy Dubuc (Grand Haven, Mich./Grand Haven) and freshman Anna Henry (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston)scored in the 5K as well, seventh and eighth respectively.
One of the big performances of day one came in the women's triple jump, where freshman Meredith Kirby (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville) took fourth spot with a jump of 32' 1". In the field, Kirby joined sophomore Kaitlyn Wesseler (Huber Heights, Ohio/Wayne) with a strong day, as Wesseler took All-NCAC honors in the pole vault with a school record-matching height of 10'.
Day Two commences on Saturday, March 7, from Denison University at 10:30 a.m. with the field events, before the running events kick off at 2:15 p.m. The Tigers look to better a seventh place finish for the men and fourth place mark for the women from last year's meet.
Written by: Ben Bradley, SID Assistant