Isaiah Kessler ‘24 secured a second place finish in the pole vault with a height of 13’9.25”, a seventh best personal record in Denison history. Grant Plasch ‘24 followed with a fifth place finish.

AARON SKUBBY, Editor-in-Chief—Denison’s men’s track and field team won 75-66 against Ohio Wesleyan University following victories in eight events, bringing their overall record to 1-1 after a loss to Wabash College last week.

The Big Red took all of the top six places in the one-mile run. Will Cunningham ‘24 led, followed by Worth Hinshaw ‘24, and Clay Ryan ‘24. Zack Johnston ‘22 took first place in the 800 meter event, with Hinshaw in third, Cunningham in fourth, and Matt Bonner ‘24 in fifth.

Charlie Webb ‘23 set a school record in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles, finishing with a time of 8.53 seconds. Isaiah Kessler ‘24 followed in second, with Jacob Brown ‘24 in third. 

“I felt pretty good after the hurdles race,” Webb said. “I thought my form was good and that I was driving through the hurdles. I think in the upcoming meets I’ll be even faster when there’s more competition from other schools. It’s fun holding the school record, because it just means I gotta beat my own times.”

Denison also took first in the 3,000 meter behind a personal best time of 9:03.26 by Adam Cromwell ‘21, with David Judd ‘24 in second. Cromwell expressed his happiness with the meet: “The meet this weekend went well for us. We edged out Ohio Wesleyan in the last two events to win the meet, which was a good confidence boost for our squad. It’s still really early and neither team was at full strength, but it was a good benchmark for us at this point in the season, and a win is a win at the end of the day. Overall, it was a fun meet and I’m happy that the team had a good day,” he said.

The Big Red did well in field events too, with first place finishes by Angelo Ricci ‘23 in both the long jump and triple jump. In the long jump, Noor Ashrifeh ‘24 took third, and Wayne Chen ‘22 took sixth. Justin Wolfe ‘21 joined Ricci in the triple jump with a fourth place finish. 

Brown secured a victory in the high jump as well, and Kessler earned second in the pole vault with Grant Plasch ‘24 in fifth.

Austin Burgess ‘21 and Gabe Springer ‘23 put up strong performances in throwing events too, especially in the shot put where they had 2nd and 3rd place performances respectively.

The Big Red will face off against Wittenberg for a dual meet on March 6, which will be the final meet of the indoor season.