Freshman Matt Molinaro leads Men's Track & Field to a third place finish at All-Ohio

By: Ashley Birchmeier

DELAWARE — Freshman Matt Molinaro garners a first and second place finish as the Ohio Northern men's track and field team post a strong third place finish Saturday at the All-Ohio meet on the George Gauthier Track located on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan.

The Polar Bears scored 101.50 points in the meet and improve to 39-3 overall this season.

"We had an unbelievable day," said head coach Jason Maus. "We had athletes score across the board and the throwers scored a tremendous amount of points for us, it was an all around great day."

Ohio Wesleyan won the meet with 158 points and Mount Union finished second with 129 points.

Molinaro claimed first in the 800-meter run in 1:53.89, setting a new personal best in the event.

The freshman also claimed second in the 1,500-meter run in 3:54.43, setting a new freshman record.

Molinaro broke the previous record of 3:54.59 set by Dan Smith in 2009.

Sophomores Dan Arkin and Aaren Hemmelgarn, as well as freshman Brandon Emert also garnered second place finishes in the meet.

Arkin claimed second in the javelin with a toss of 54.76 meters.

Emert claimed second in the 400-meter hurdles in 54.51 seconds.

Hemmelgarn claimed second in the 5,000-meter run in 15:08.41.

Sophomore Lucas Shumate garnered a third and fourth place finish in the meet.

The sophomore finished third in the hammer throw with a pitch of 53.33 meters and fourth in the discus with a toss of 42.98 meters.

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, sophomore Kase Schalois finished third in 9:41.01.

Senior Ryan Brancheau also claimed a third place finish in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.98 meters.

The 4x100 meter relay team of junior Denorris Turner, freshman Matthew Craven, junior Christian Rupe, and junior Jojuan Fisher finished fourth in 42.42 seconds.

Rupe also earned a fifth place finish in the 400-meter dash in 49.65 seconds.

Junior Brandon Ike claimed fifth in the pole vault clearing a height of 4.43 meters.

In the shot put, senior Phil Farwig also finished fifth with a toss of 14.21 meters.

The Polar Bears return to action Sarturday as the host the Polar Bear Invitational at Kerscher Stadium. 

Team Scores

1. Ohio Wesleyan 158, 2. Mount Union 129, 3. Ohio Northern 101.50, 4. Otterbein 71, 5. John Carroll 66, 6. Case Western 40, 7. Baldwin Wallace 38, 8. Wilmington 32, t9. Wittenberg 31, t9. Bluffton 31, 11. Heidelberg 23, 12. Denison 18, 13. Wooster 17, 14. Defiance 16, 15. Capital 14, 16. Oberlin 13.50, 17. Muskingum 12, 18. Marietta 2, t19. Kenyon 0, t19. Mount St. Joseph 0.