By Anna Dunlavey

Many Lords and Ladies shattered individual track and field records last Friday at Denison University’s Last Chance Meet.

Funmilayo Lawal ’18 threw 116’ 4’’ in the discus throw, beating not only her personal-best mark of 110’ 0’’, but also Kenyon’s 34-year-old program record of 113’ 3’’.
This is the second school record that Lawal has broken in her first year on the team; the first was earlier in the season in the hammer throw.

“We’re excited for her future and what she’s going to do,” Head Coach Duane Gomez said.

Lawal shared the spotlight with Lucas Herweyer ’15, who had an impressive showing for the Lords, outdoing his personal best of 122’ 10’’ by almost five feet with a throw of 127’ 7’’.

Kenyon’s runners also excelled at the meet. Subei Kyle ’17 had a first-place finish in the 400-meter dash, finishing in1:01.07 and beating her prior season-best time by two seconds.
“She came pretty close to breaking the 60-second mark, which not that many people do,” Gomez said.

Kyle also placed third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.13, and was named one of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) athletes of the week.

Gillian Blackwell ’18 and Jonah Edwards ’18 both took second-place finishes. Blackwell finished right behind Kyle in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:03.28. Edwards, who recently returned from an injury, finished one spot ahead of Kyle in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.69. Other first-place finishers on the women’s side were Mollie O’Leary ’17, who won the 800-meter run with a personal-best time of 2:23.45, and Emma Levant ’16, who won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.83 seconds.

Samantha White ’16 continued the assault on personal records in the 1,500-meter race. Her time of 5:07.20 was seven seconds faster than it was two weeks ago at the Kenyon Spring Invitational.

Colton Orr ’18, also back on the track after being sidelined with an injury, had two top-five finishes in only his second meet of the season. He placed second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.45, and took fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:00.33.

Alton Barbehenn ’17 finished second in the 400-meter hurdles in 57.90, and Nat Fox ’16 grabbed a fifth-place finish in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.83.

The Last Chance meet was unscored, but it gave runners a chance to tune up before the NCAC Championships, which will be held this Friday and Saturday at Ohio Wesleyan University.
“We’ve talked to everybody who’s running, and they all have their goals set,” Gomez said. “Everybody’s ready to go.”