McVey and Butcher post first place finishes to lead No. 27 Men's Track & Field to third place finish at Joe Banks Invitational
By Caleb Scott
ADA — Junior Ian McVey (Stow/Munroe Falls) and sophomore Jared Butcher (Mechanicsburg) and posted first place finishes to lead the No. 27-ranked Ohio Northern men's track and field team to a third place finish at the annual Joe Banks Invitational on Saturday afternoon at the Kinghorn Fieldhouse.
The Polar Bears (12-4 overall) finished third of 13 teams in the meet with 79 points.
McVey and Butcher would each claim a first place finish in the meet to lead the way for Northern.
McVey took first place in the 1-mile run in 4:17.50 before Butcher won the 500-meter dash in 1:07.32.
Freshman Gabe Dauch (Norwalk/Norwalk St. Pauls) would also post a top-5 finish in the 500-meter dash and he finished fourth in the event in 1:07.79.
In the 3,000-meter run, junior Spencer Schulze (St. Henry) finished second in 9:00.16, while freshman Travis Sutter (Fort Recovery) finished fifth in 9:22.61.
Freshmen Colin McCullough (Galion) and Owen Lloyd (Colfax, Ind./Clinton Prairie) would finish 2-6 in 60-meter hurdles in :8.63 and :8.71 seconds, respectively. Both freshmen narrowly missed the school record mark in the event.
Senior Luke Bogdanovich (Akron/Coventry) led the way in the field events for ONU, as he finished third in the high jump with a leap of 6' 1.25".
Sophomore Noah McKee (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) and Bogdanovich finished 2-4 in the triple jump with jumps of 40' 6.00" and 38' 3.50", respectively.
"We had some good moments today on the men's side of the meet," said head coach Jason Maus. "Its nice to be able to compete at home around friends and family and I think our guys had a good meet. We saw a lot of good things today as far as PR's and OAC standards go which is always a good thing. This was a productive meet and we certainly saw some highlights and things we need to work on to get better this year."
The Polar Bears return to action next Feb. 10 as they compete in the All-Ohio Championships at Westerville.
Team Standings
1. Otterbein 93, 2. Heidelberg 90.83, 3. Ohio Northern 79, 4. Case Western Reserve 77.50. 5. Ohio Dominican 74, 6. John Carroll 72. 7. Albion (Mich.) 53, 8. Capital 48, 9. Wittenberg 42, 10. Malone 36, 11. Bluffton 22.66, 12. Ohio Christian 21, 13. Defiance 12