MEADVILLE, Pa. — Just as he did two months earlier at the 2012 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Indoor Track and Field Championship meet, sophomore Victor Banjo (Sugarland, Texas/Stephen F. Austin) provided plenty of sparks at the conference's outdoor championship competition.
The fourth-place finisher in the nation in the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships after winning the conference title in the event, Banjo capped his remarkable opening collegiate season in the Red & White with victories in the 100- and 200-meter dash events at the NCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship meet. His performance led the Tigers to a fifth-place team finish, while the Tiger women placed seventh.
Banjo earned NCAC Outdoor Sprinter/Hurdler of the Year after his tremendous performance in the meet hosted by Allegheny College. He also likely earned himself a spot in the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the 200-meter dash.
Banjo started his weekend off by doing the expected, turning in the fastest time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter dash and then cruising to victory in the final the next day in a time of 10.77, which cleared the field by a whopping .16.
After recording the sixth-best time in the 200-meter dash preliminary races, Banjo appeared to be set to simply add a few points to the Tigers' team total in the final. Instead, Banjo blistered the field, lowering his time from 22.27 in the prelim to 21.53 in the final to win the event and set a school record. That time puts him in the top 10 nationally, to go along with a 100-meter dash mark that puts Banjo in the top 20 in all of NCAA Division III.
Banjo wasn't done, however. He ran the second leg of the 4x100-meter relay that earned All-NCAC honors with a second-place finish. He was joined on the relay by freshman Justin Yates (Dayton, Ohio/Bellbrook), freshman Charles Watson (Star, Idaho/Eagle) and sophomore Chris Frierson (Cedar Hill, Texas/Desoto).
Just as she did at the indoor meet, freshman Shelby Kaho (Sugar Grove, Ohio/Berne Union) joined Banjo atop the podium following the women's 100-meter hurdles race. She turned in a time of 15.92 in the preliminary race before posting a time of 15.38 in the final, easily outpacing the rest of the field by .33.
Also of note for the Tiger women was a fourth-place finish from senior Samantha Iden (Pickerington, Ohio/North) in the 400-meter hurdles, the junior pole vaulting duo of Kaileigh Bible (Bellefontaine, Ohio/Bellefontaine) and Paige Lloyd (Medina, Ohio/Cloverleaf) that took fourth and fifth, respectively, and the 4x400-meter relay of freshman Leslie Goshia (Bryan, Ohio/Bryan), senior Catherine Kuerbitz (Cleveland, Ohio/Regina), Iden and junior Shawna Johnson (Uhrichsville, Ohio/Claymont), who earned All-NCAC honors with a third-place finish.
Rounding things out for the women was a third-place performance by senior Anna Henry (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston) in the 10,000 meters.
On the men's side, Yates added a fifth-place finish in the 400 meters, freshman Charles Watson (Star, Idaho/Eagle) finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles, sophomore Jacob Kuntz (Versailles, Ky./Woodford County) hit the finish line in sixth in the 3000-meter steeplechase, and junior Sven Isaacson (Dalton, Ohio/Dalton) earned fifth in the discus and sixth in the hammer, one spot behind sophomore Logan Jackson (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial).