McVey and DMR earn All-OAC honors to lead Men's Indoor Track & Field on day one of OAC Championships
By Caleb Scott
BEXLEY — Junior Ian McVey (Stow/Munroe Falls) and the men's distance medley relay team each earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors to lead the Ohio Northern men's indoor track and field team on the first day of the OAC Championships at the Capital Center.
The Polar Bears are currently fifth of 10 teams with 18 points after the first day of the meet.
Mount Union leads the way with 41.5 points, John Carroll is in second with 38 points and Heidelberg is third with 21 points.
McVey earned ONU's first All-Conference honor this season, posting a second place finish in the 5,000-meter run in 15:02.30.
The distance medley relay team of seniors Alec Lunney (Middleburg Heights/Berea-Midpark), Brandon Emert (Brunswick) and Matt Molinaro (Sterling Heights, Mich./DeLaSalle) and freshman Sam Krabacher (Hamilton/Badin) also garnered All-OAC honors after finishing third in the event in 10:26.36.
In the 500-meter dash, freshman Gabe Dauch (Norwalk/St. Paul) and sophomore Jared Butcher (Mechanicsburg) finished 4-5, respectively to advance to Saturday's finals in the event.
Senior Conner Karg (West Liberty/Salem) also advanced to Saturday's finals in the 400-meter dash, finishing sixth overall in :51.55.
Northern saw two freshmen qualify for the 60-meter hurdle finals on Saturday as Owen Lloyd (Colfax, Ind./Clinton Prairie) finished sixth in the preliminaries in :8.61 and Collin McCullough finished eighth in :8.67.
"The key for day one is to really just get to day two," said head coach Jason Maus. "McVey had a really good race in the 5k and you have to give it to John Carroll's guy for hanging in there and winning that race. McVey ran a very tactical race and made a big move and put himself in a good spot early on. It was nice to see a couple of our young hurdlers qualify for the finals. Overall it was a pretty good day. We have to bring our best at this meet because it brings out the best in everyone else."
Northern will return to the track tomorrow afternoon during the second day of the OAC Championships.
Team Standings - Thru Day 1
1. Mount Union 41.5, 2. John Carroll 38, 3. Heidelberg 21, 4. Baldwin Wallace 20, 5. Ohio Northern 18, 6. Otterbein 17, 7. Wilmington 11, 8. Capital 10, 9. Marietta 8.5, 10. Muskingum 7
