The Bobcats finished fourth out of 19 teams at this weekend’s All-Ohio Championships, but coach Clay Calkins still believes something is missing.
“We had a solid performance,” Calkins said. “As a team that is not at full capacity, with runners like Juli Accurso out, we missed a potential 20 points.”
Ohio fell short of Akron, Cincinnati and Miami, who Calkins said came out looking strong. Even so, the Bobcats marked their best finish in the meet since 2011, led by a first-place run by senior Melissa Thompson in the 1,500-meter run.
Thompson finished with a time of 4:38.33 to earn 10 of Ohio’s 83 total points.
“Melissa is a great competitor,” Calkins said “She comes to compete day in and day out.”
Another athlete who recorded a strong finish was junior thrower Donyelle Brown. Not only did she claim yet another personal record, she also set a new program record in the hammer throw with a distance of 56.89 meters.
“It’s really good,” Calkins said. “It was a great benchmark for not only her but for the coaches moving forward.”
Krista Roehlig competed in a an event in which she is normally not featured, dominating the 5,000 meter race at the Ohio Cherry Blossom Invitational. On Saturday, she ran the 10,000 and produced similar results by finishing third with a time of 37:33.78.
Calkins said he wanted to see how she would compete in the 10,000 to better her for a possible NCAA first round qualifier.
In the sprints, junior Delaney Bolger placed second in the 800-meter dash. Her time of 2:12.31 was a few seconds better than last weekend’s time and the separation between first and second was only by hundredths of a second.
In the javelin throw, sophomore Ashlee Bilhimer placed third with a mark of 37.56 meters. Behind her were seniors Lauren McCullough and Olivia Vitou.
“Going into this weekend, we wanted them to position themselves to see where they would place. We wanted them to finish higher not lower,” Calkins said.
And that they did.
@wynstonw_
ww773412@ohiou.edu
