Track and Field Opens Outdoor Season
The Heidelberg University men’s and women’s track and field teams, under the guidance of first-year head coach Keith Roberts Jr., opened their 2009 outdoor season at the Wake Forest Open March 20-21.
A wealth of athletes excelled both on the track and in the field led by Devin Butcher (Bowling Green, Ohio / Bowling Green), Joe Yoder (West Liberty, Ohio / West Liberty Salem) and Wayne Lanum (Marengo, Ohio / Highland) on the men’s side and Tomika Brown (Bellefontaine, Ohio / Bellefontaine) for the women.
Butcher got things started on Friday with a personal best time of 15:05.09 in the 5,000-meter run. He is closing in on the school record of 15:03.17 set by Dan Simpson in 2007. In the final standings, Butcher cracked the top-10 with a seventh place finish.
Yoder, a freshman, finished in the top-11 in the hurdles events and was the top Division III finisher. He crossed the finish line in 15.59 in the 110-meter high hurdles to take 11th and returned in the 400-meter hurdles to race to 10th in 54.76.
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Fellow newcomer Lanum paced the throwers with a 14th place finish in the shot put. He heaved the shot put 45’11.75”.
Brown is just a week out from taking home All-American honors in the indoor high jump at the NCAA Division III National Championships. She wasted little time getting acclimated to the outdoors. She tied for sixth in the high jump after clearing 5’2.25”. On the track she cruised to a new Heidelberg school record in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.05 in the prelims, and went on to race to a 13th place finish in 15.13 in the finals. She topped the old mark of 16.02 set by Casey Adams in 2006. It is the second school record Brown has set in just her first season at the Berg. She also topped the Berg record book in the indoor 55-meter hurdles.
Also taking home a top finish was the men’s 4x400-meter relay team with a sixth in a time of 3:19.52. Joining together for the race was Seth Robertson (Burton, Ohio / Newbury), Mark Childs (New Albany, Ohio / New Albany), Josh Bowmar (Marengo, Ohio / Highland) and Terrence Horton (Pickerington, Ohio / Pickerington).