By Anna Dunlavey
The track and field team hosted their only home meet of the indoor season, the Kenyon College Classic, on Saturday, and despite snowy weather in the area, nine out of the 10 schools invited were able to attend. The Ladies raced to a third-place finish out of the women’s teams, and the Lords took eighth place on the men’s side.
“It’s always good being at home,” Head Coach Duane Gomez said. “I think [the runners] are more relaxed, and their friends are there cheering them on.”
The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) also recognized the strong individual performances of two of the team’s captains, Emma Levant ’16 and Noah Winters ’15, by selecting them as two of the NCAC’s sprinters of the week.
This was the first time Levant was named NCAC sprinter of the week. “It’s definitely an honor because the award is typically given to athletes that I really admire, so it’s neat for me to be put on the same level as them,” Levant said.
Levant, a multi-eventer, won the 60-meter hurdles race in a time of 9.43 seconds. She also put up two fourth-place finishes, in the long jump, where she reached 4.77 meters, and in the high jump, where she reached 1.48 meters. “There are a number of technical things that I still need to work on, but I was lucky enough to have everything come together for me during all of my events,” Levant said. “It was especially fun to have that happen while we were at home.”
Sprinter Winters finished first in the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.80. Winters then took fourth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.74, and was part of the 4×200-meter relay, which finished in eighth place with a time of 3:40.39. “I was content with it,” Winters said about his performance at the meet. As for being named sprinter of the week, Winters said, “I was happy to have it happen.”
Distance runner Nat Fox ’16 took first place in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 9:00.69, a personal best for him by almost 20 seconds. “He ran really, really well,” Gomez said of Fox. “It was the best race I’ve ever seen him run.” In field events, Devron Martin ’18 had her best outing of the season in the triple jump. She won the event with a jump of 10.27 meters.
Subei Kyle ’17 claimed first place in the 400-meter dash. Kyle, who twisted her ankle while finishing her leg of the 4×200-meter relay at the All-Ohio Championship two weeks ago, put the injury behind her last weekend and posted a personal best time of 1:03.01.
Lucas Herweyer ’15 also posted a great finish after coming back from injury. Herweyer, competing in only his second meet of the season, placed second in the shot put with a throw that measured 15.46 meters.
Gomez and his team believed that competing at home made the event a bit more relaxed. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had at a track meet,” Tanner Zaas ’15, one of Winters’ 4×200-meter relay teammates, said. “Everybody was running fast, everybody came off the track with a smile, everybody was pumped up.”
“It’s always kind of fun to run at home,” Winters said. “We put so much time in down there so it was nice to see the affirmation.”
Next week, some of the team will compete at Denison University’s Last Chance Meet to get qualifying times for the NCAC Indoor Championships. Levant and fellow multi-eventers will start their portion of the NCAC meet this coming weekend, and the rest of the team will compete March 7-8 at DePauw University. “We have a lot of people going to conferences for the first time, so that will be fun,” Gomez said.