Men Finish Runner-Up; Women Fifth at Rev. Mike Hout Invite

The Heidelberg men’s and women’s track and field teams had two runners provisionally-qualify for the NCAA Division III Championship en route to a pair of top-five team finishes at the Rev. Mike Hout Invitational hosted by Capital University on Saturday.
 
The men’s team scored 137 points to finish second to The Ohio State University (233). West Virginia Wesleyan College was third with 117 points followed by Capital (72) and Lake Erie College (51).
 
On the women’s side, the Berg finished fifth with 64 points. Ohio State claimed the women’s team championship as well with 269.5 points, while Ohio University (125) was second followed by West Virginia Wesleyan (80) and Capital (74.5).
 
Junior Julius Higginbotham (Elyria, Ohio / Elyria) provisionally-qualified for nationals in the long jump and the 60-meter dash. At the invite he claimed the long jump championship with a leap of 23’3.25”, and provisionally-qualified for nationals on the track in the 60-meter dash with a preliminary time of 6.95. Higginbotham returned in the finals to finish third in a time of 6.98. He also ran to a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash (23.78).
 
Judy Bataille (Felicity, Ohio / Felicity-Franklin) provisionally-qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 60-meter dash for the second-straight outing. She qualified with her preliminary time of 7.79 only to return in the finals to qualify once again with a time of 7.71. Bataille finished second in the field at the invite. In the 200-meter dash, Bataille raced to a runner-up finish in a time of 26.57.
 
Aside from Higginbotham’s win in the long jump, Mark Childs (New Albany, Ohio / New Albany) was victories in the 300-meter dash. Childs crossed the finish line in 36.28. Childs led a strong contingent of ’Berg runners in the 300-meter dash, as he was one of six point scorers in the race. Backing Childs in fourth was Terrence Horton (Pickerington, Ohio / Pickerington) (38.21), Joe Yoder (West Liberty, Ohio / West Liberty Salem) (38.59) was fifth followed by Seth Robertson (Burton, Ohio / Sunbury) (38.87), Brett Meadows (Marysville, Ohio / Bellefontaine) (39.76) and Andrew Schwartz (Dearborn, Mich. / Dearborn) (41.42).
 
Racing to individual third place finishes was Yoder in the 60-meter hurdles in a time of 8.88 and Horton in the 500-meter run (1:09.67). The 4x200-meter relay team of Paris Hilliard (Lorain, Ohio / Admiral King), Higginbotham, Schwartz and Meadows (1:33.94) finished third, along with the 4x400-meter relay team consisting of Horton, Robertson, Josh Bowmar (Marengo, Ohio / Highland) and Childs (3:29.82).
 
Yoder took a break from the track to leap to a fourth place finish in the high jump. He registered a jump of 6’3.5”.
 
Childs and Bowmar finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 400-meter dash. Childs crossed the finish line in 52.57 followed by Bowmar in 53.07. Rounding out the top-five finishers for the men was Robertson in the 500-meter dash (1:10.48) and Shondell Thomas (Westerville, Ohio / Westerville Central) in the 800-meter run (2:07.62).
 
On the women’s side, aside from Bataille, Tomika Brown (Bellefontaine, Ohio / Bellefontaine) shared runner-up honors in the high jump. The freshman was jumping in her first meet on the year and placed behind Division I competition. Brown cleared 5’3.75”.
 
The women’s 4x400-meter relay team of Lillian Hansberger (Norwalk, Ohio / Western Reserve), Jazmine Shaw (Columbus, Ohio / Hamilton Township), Angela Zellner (Twinsburg, Ohio / Twinsburg) and Jessica Jones (Wauseon, Ohio / Wauseon) finished runner-ups. The quartet crossed the finish line in 4:21.66.
 
Standing third was Shaw in the 500-meter run in a time of 1:26.38, along with the 4x200-meter relay team consisting of Shaw, Brown, Shanice McLellan (Lima, Ohio / Lima Senior) and Bataille. The relay team raced to a time of 1:49.24.
 
McLellan rounded out the top-five placers for the women with a fourth in the 300-meter dash (45.62).