Heidelberg Impressive In Day One Of Action At OAC Track & Field Championships

The Heidelberg College men’s and women’s track and field teams, under the guidance of head coach Kevin Lucas, made an immediate impact on day one of the 2007 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

On the men’s side, junior Greg Tyson, Jr. (Lima, Ohio / Lima Senior) improved on his national qualifying leap in the long jump with a mark of 24’3.50”, which earned him an OAC Championship and all-league honors for the third-straight season. Tyson, Jr. also ran a 21.66 time in the 200-meter dash preliminaries, which provisionally qualified him for the national meet. Tyson, Jr. heads into Saturday’s finals with the fastest qualifying time and also ranks 11th in the nation with his OAC preliminary race time.

Both Heidelberg’s men’s and women’s 4x800-meter relay teams set new school records in day one of action at the championships. The men’s team of Mark Childs (New Albany, Ohio / New Albany), Reed Wolverton (Van Wert, Ohio / Van Wert), Zac Sendelbach (New London, Ohio / New London) and Scott Lasch (Huron, Ohio / Huron) finished second in a school record time of 7:39.90, which also earned the team all-conference accolades. The men’s team topped the 1999 record of 7:46.00. The women’s quartet of Kelsey Elliott (Ottawa, Ohio / Ottawa-Glandorf), Angela Zellner (Twinsburg, Ohio / Twinsburg), Nikki Jones (Fremont, Ohio / Hopewell-Loudon) and Jamie Depinet (New Riegel, Ohio / Riegel) crossed the finish line in a school record 9:34.12, good enough for a fourth place finish. Elliott, Zellner, Jones and Depinet topped the old school record of 9:38.54 which was set in 2001.

Also scoring points on the day was Julius Higginbotham (Elyria, Ohio / Elyria) with a third place leap in the long jump (22’6.25”) and Shawn Shriver (Bellevue, Ohio / Western Reserve) with an eighth in the long jump (21’4.25”). For his efforts Higginbotham earned all-conference honors.

On the women’s side, Jessica Peters (DeGraff, Ohio / Indian Lake) and Jennaveve Brook (Galion, Ohio / Northmor) finished sixth (113’11”) and eighth (111’7”), respectively, in the discus.