Through the cold, stormy weather, the Bobcats took home eight top-10 finishes against more than 65 teams at the Jesse Owens Track Classic on Friday and Saturday.
The strongest highlights were found among the performances from Ohio’s distance runners, who set a handful of personal-best records throughout the weekend.
Sophomore Emily Pifer placed eighth in the 5,000-meter race with a time of 17 minutes and 8.63 seconds.
Freshman Morgan Reichert and junior Ashley Waddington also finished in the top 20 of the same event with Reichert running her best time of the season and Waddington knocking off nearly 30 seconds of her personal-best mark.
Sophomore Melissa Thompson recorded a four-minute-and-37.2-second time in the 1,500-meter run, which tied her personal-best time and Ohio’s best time of the outdoor season.
“This is a good stepping stone leading into All-Ohio’s next week,” Ohio distance coach Mitch Bentley said. “We were just looking to improve our performances, and we accomplished that, so that will give us some confidence going into All-Ohio’s. We’re ready to compete against some of the best there.”
In the other events, Ohio recorded two top-10 finishes in the javelin. Senior Hope McCarty placed seventh while junior Alexa Macri came in ninth.
McCarty also took ninth in the 800 with a time of two minutes and 13.66 seconds, which is her new personal best, which placed her among the top 10 in the Mid-American Conference this season.
Senior Courtney Weiss placed sixth in the 400-meter hurdles and junior Danielle Winningham achieved two top-20 finishes in the 400 and 200-meter races.
Ohio’s 4x400-meter relay squad placed fifth while its 4x100 unit took eighth.
Junior Jaimie Cavinee cleared 3.16 meters in the pole vault, setting the bar at a new season-high for the Bobcats.
Throws coach Nick Pero said he wanted to see more improvements in the field events at Ohio State but is looking forward to working hard this week and hopefully seeing better marks at the next meet, the All-Ohio Championships at Miami University.
Head coach Clay Calkins could not be reached for comment.
nb155607@ohiou.edu
