Season Preview: Men’s Track & Field brings talent, depth into 2022
By Wes Mayberry
| 2022 Men's Track & Field Schedule |
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's track and field team boasts a deep, talented roster for the 2022 season under 13th-year head coach Jason Maus.
The Polar Bears welcome in 32 freshmen to a group that returns 30 letter winners from their 2021 team that went 26-5 and finished third in the Ohio Athletic Conference Indoor Championships and posted a 41-9 record and third-place finish in the OACs in the outdoor portion of the schedule.
"We're excited and optimistic at the start of the 2022 season. We have talent, depth and balance, which are all keys to a successful track and field team," Maus said. "We have a large number of returning contributors and some new additions we're excited about. We'll have to develop and learn our roles throughout the regular season to be competitive in this very tough conference."
This year's roster is headlined by seniors Nate Dean (Euclid/Villa Angela-Saint Joseph), a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier, and Sam Krabacher (Hamilton/Badin) and Andrew Buderer (Oak Harbor), both of whom were two-time OAC champions last season.
Dean qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 400-meter dash in 2019 and the 200-meter dash in 2020 and was named a USTFCCCA All-American in the latter event. Last season, Krabacher won the OAC championship in the indoor and outdoor 800 meters while Buderer won the conference titles in the indoor and outdoor pole vaults.
Krabacher also earned All-OAC status in the indoor and outdoor 4x400-meter relay, and Buderer added an All-OAC accolade in the outdoor 4x100-meter relay last season.
The Polar Bears return eight other All-OAC performers from last season, including seniors Travis Sutter (Sharpsburg/Fort Recovery) and Luke Shellhaas (Greenville/Versailles); juniors Brandon Berry (Wickliffe), Hunter Kesler (Oakwood/Paulding), Vini Souza (Spencerville) and Billy Driemeyer (House Springs, Mo./Lindbergh); and sophomores David Gross (Prospect/Pleasant Local) and Keegan Digby (Bowling Green/Otsego).
Krabacher, Buderer, Dean, Shellhaas and Digby also earned USTFCCCA All-Great Lakes Region accolades last season.
In the classroom, Krabacher, Sutter and Digby are returning USTFCCCA All-Academic honorees, and the former two joined seniors Patrick Baker (Massillon/Jackson) and Christian Booze (Bellevue) and juniors Selorm Adehe (Grove City/Central Crossing), Brooks Blakeley (Versailles) and Breydan Hann (Wooster) as 2021 Academic All-OAC selections.
It all adds up to what is expected to be a promising group for the 2022 season, which opens Friday with ONU hosting the Larry Cole Invitational.
Here is a preview of the 2022 ONU men's track and field team, by event groupings.
Sprints
Dean leads ONU's group of sprinters, as he returns with 54 career OAC Championship points. He owns school records indoors in the 60-meter dash (:06.94) and 200-meter dash (:22.09), ranks third all-time in the indoor 400-meter dash and outdoor 200-meter dash and is ninth in program history in the outdoor 400-meter dash.
A 2020 USTFCCCA All-American in the indoor 200, Dean is a four-time USTFCCCA All-Region selection and an eight-time All-OAC performer. His 2021 season included All-OAC accolades in the indoor 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay and the outdoor 100-meter dash and 4x100-meter relay.
Berry and Adehe both own top-eight times in the ONU record books. Indoors, Berry ranks fifth all-time in the 60-meter dash, and Adehe ranks eighth in the 60-meter hurdles.
Berry earned All-OAC status as a member of the outdoor 4x100-meter relay team last season.
Kesler was a three-time All-OAC sprinter last season, earning the accolade in the indoor 400-meter dash and 4x400-meter relay and the outdoor 4x400-meter relay.
Souza earned a pair of All-OAC accolades last season as a member of ONU's outdoor 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relay teams.
Gross also earned two All-OAC accolades last season as a member of the indoor and outdoor 4x400-meter relay teams.
Buderer was a member of the outdoor 4x100-meter relay team that earned All-OAC status.
Junior Branden Kadlubowski (Fremont/St. Joseph Central Catholic) was a member of the fourth-place 4x200-meter relay team in last season's OAC indoor meet.
Freshmen Jordan Dean (Euclid/Villa Angela St. Joseph) and Jacob Kreger (Granville) are also expected to contribute in their first season at ONU.
"This group has great depth and several key additions" Maus said. "We're excited to build around this group and see just how good they can get throughout the season."
Jumps
The Polar Bears return a quartet of talented pole vaulters in Buderer, Shellhaas, junior Brandt Marshall (Hancock County/Cory-Rawson) and sophomore Brandon Wise (Goshen, Ind./Concord).
Buderer, a three-time OAC champion, is a five-time All-OAC performer, four-time USTFCCCA All-Great Lakes Region honoree and a 2020 USTFCCCA All-American. He owns 44.5 career OAC Championship points, ranks second in program history with his indoor jump of 15-11 and fifth all-time with his outdoor jump of 15-8.5.
Shellhaas has 26 career OAC Championship points and is a three-time All-OAC and USTFCCCA All-Great Lakes Region performer. He placed third in the indoor vault during last season's OAC meet.
Marshall placed eighth indoors and ninth outdoors at the 2021 OAC meets, and Wise placed 12th and eighth, respectively, in those events.
Sophomore Gabe Hensley (Lebanon) will look to score points in the triple jump and long jump this season after narrowly missing out in 2021. He placed 10th outdoors at the OACs in both events last season after placing 11th in the triple jump and 13th in the long jump at the indoor conference meet.
The Polar Bears have also added promising freshman Tyrese Barker (Reynoldsburg/Bishop Hartley) as a hurdler and jumper.
"We'll lean on the experience of the pole vaulters again this year and ask some of our younger guys to step up and improve as the season moves along," Maus said.
Distance/Mid-Distance
The Polar Bears boast a deep group in this event category, as 15 lettermen return for 2022.
Coming off two conference championships and an All-Great Lakes Region accolade in 2021, Krabacher has 53.75 career OAC Championship points and is a 10-time All-OAC and three-time Academic All-OAC honoree. He ranks in the top nine all-time at ONU with his times in the indoor and outdoor 800-meter runs and the outdoor 1,500-meter run.
Sutter, a three-time Academic All-OAC honoree, enters 2022 with 17 career OAC Championship points. He placed second outdoors in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and eighth indoors in the 3,000-meter run at last year's OACs. He owns the sixth-fastest time in program history in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Driemeyer earned his first All-OAC accolade last season with his second-place finish in the 3,000 meters in the OAC indoor meet. His time ranks third in program history.
Baker, a two-time Academic All-OAC honoree, placed eighth outdoors in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters last season and ranks fifth all-time at ONU with his time in the latter event.
Sophomore Trey Myers (Dayton/Chaminade-Julienne) is coming off a solid showing in 2021, placing fifth indoors in the 800 meters, and fourth and sixth, respectively, in the outdoor 4x800-meter relay and 800-meter run at the OAC meets. He ranks eighth all-time at ONU in the 800 meters.
Sophomores Aaron Guzman (Lebanon) and Ian Wallace (Tontogany/Otsego) joined Myers on the fourth-place 4x800-meter relay team, and the latter added a sixth-place finish in the outdoor 800 meters last season.
Senior Dylan McKean (Warren/Champion) placed fifth at the indoor OACs in the distance medley relay last season, and Hann placed ninth in the outdoor 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Blakeley is coming off a ninth-place showing in the mile run in last year's indoor OACs.
Seniors Caden Sauerbrey (Dresden/Tri-Valley) and Alessandro Tramontano (Highland Heights/Mayfield), junior Connor Lamison (Cranberry Township, Pa./Beaver Area) and sophomores Ian Ackenhausen (Xenia/Legacy Christian Academy) and Kyle Roth (Rockford/Parkway) also return as lettermen in the distance/mid-distance events.
"This group has got to step up and be better this year across the board," Maus said. "We saw this fall just how good the OAC is in distance running, so we've got to be better if we're going to compete. We have a good mix of returners and freshmen. We just have to put it together."
Throws
Digby and fellow sophomores Tommy Vetrovsky (Macedonia/Nordonia) and Zach DeBord (Mount Vernon/Highland) are the three returners in the throwing events for the Polar Bears in 2022.
Digby placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the shot put and weight throw in the 2021 indoor OACs and posted a pair of sixth-place finishes in the outdoor hammer throw and shot put. His marks in the indoor shot put and weight throw and outdoor hammer throw all rank in the top six all-time at ONU.
Vetrovsky is a returning letterman who competed in the indoor shot put and weight throw and outdoor discus throw, hammer throw and javelin throw in the 2021 OAC meets.
DeBord, another returning letterman, competed in the indoor weight throw and outdoor hammer throw in last year's OACs.
"Collectively, this is probably the youngest group in the program," Maus said. "But they have a ton of upside, and I'm excited to see their improvement this season."