Men’s Indoor Track and Field posts best All-Ohio finish since 2012 with second-place showing

By Wes Mayberry

WESTERVILLE — The Ohio Northern men's track and field team placed second of 18 teams at Saturday's All-Ohio Division III Championships at Otterbein University for its best finish at the event since 2012.

"What a great team effort. I'm so proud of our effort all the way across the board," ONU head coach Jason Maus said. "We got points from every event group and really put together a solid meet."

The Polar Bears (25-1) finished with 109 points. Mount Union won the meet with 186.5 points. Case Western Reserve finished third with 64.5 points, and Otterbein, Wittenberg and Wilmington all tied for fourth with 43 points.

Senior Patrick Baker (Massillon/Jackson) won the 5,000 meters in a personal-best time of 15:06.26, which ranks sixth all-time at ONU.

The Polar Bears' 4x400 relay team of senior Sam Krabacher (Hamilton/Badin), junior Vini Souza (Spencerville) and sophomores David Gross (Prospect/Pleasant Local) and Trey Myers (Dayton/Chaminade-Julienne) also brought home a victory, finishing in a time of 3:27.25.

Krabacher added a second-place finish in the 800 meters with a time of 1:56.30.

Senior Nate Dean (Euclid/Villa Angela Saint Joseph) finished second in the 60-meter dash with a time of :07.00, and freshman Jordan Dean (Euclid/Villa Angela Saint Joseph) placed second in the 400-meter dash with a personal-best time of :49.70, which ranks fifth all-time at ONU.

Thomas Masterson finished third in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:17.29.

ONU's 4x200 relay team of Souza, Nate Dean and juniors Ollie Jacobs (DeGraff/Riverside) and Brandon Berry (Wickliffe) finished third in 1:32.81.

Senior Luke Shellhaas  (Greenville/Versailles), junior Hunter Kesler (Oakwood/Paulding) and freshman Ozzie Miller (Dalton) all posted fifth-place finishes.

Shellhaas tied for fifth in the pole vault with a high vault of 4.29 meters, Kesler placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of :50.91, and Miller crossed the line fifth in the 60-meter dash in a time of :07.04.

ONU's distance medley relay team of Gross, senior Dylan McKean (Warren/Champion), junior Brooks Blakeley (Versailles) and sophomore Aaron Guzman (Lebanon) also finished fifth, running a time of 10:49.22.

ONU also had a pair of sixth-place finishes with sophomore Kyle Roth (Rockford/Parkway) in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:20.87 and junior Selorm Adehe (Grove City/Central Crossing) in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of :08.67.

Maus had even more reason to celebrate Saturday, as his team helped him become the program's new all-time wins leader. Maus now has 571 career wins, breaking the old mark of 555 set by former coach Brian Cole.

"This is truly an honor," Maus said of his accomplishment. "I've had great athletes and assistant coaches, so it's a program achievement."

Select Ohio Northern student-athletes also competed at the Baldwin Wallace Mid-February Meet on Friday.

At that meet, sophomore Brandon Wise (Goshen, Ind./Concord) won the pole vault with a high vault of 4.27 meters.

Freshman Keefer McClure added a second-place finish in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:44.80.

The Polar Bears return to action on Saturday, Feb. 19, at the Wittenberg Invitational.