NAPERSVILLE, Ill. – Seven members of the Baldwin Wallace University men's and women's outdoor track and field teams competed in the two-day Gregory Invitational, an NCAA "Last Chance" meet hosted by North Central (Ill.) College at Benedetti-Wherli Stadium.
All seven student-athletes competed in order to obtain a qualifying mark to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field National Championship meet next week.
On the first day of the meet, sophomore All-Ohio Athletic Conference throwers Ted Achladis (Avon Lake/Elyria Catholic) and Brooke Buckhannon (Collins/Western Reserve) competed in the discus and the hammer throw, respectively. Achladis won the discus with a toss of 158 feet, 9 inches, while Buckhannon finished seventh in the hammer with a mark of 154'0". Sophomore distance runner Isaac Wilson (Tylersburg, Pa./North Clarion) was the only other Yellow Jacket to compete on day one as he ran a time of 15:45.79 in the 5,000-meter run.
In day two action, sophomore All-OAC thrower Jillian Roberts (Broadview Heights/Brecksville-Broadview Heights) and Achladis swept the shot put events. Roberts took the top spot on the women's side with a toss of 42'10.75" while Achladis registered his second event win with a 52'5.5" mark on his very first throw. Buckhannon also finished third in the shot put with a mark of 40'6".
On the track, sophomore All-OAC distance runner Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) placed seventh in the 1,500-meter run in 4:39.00 flat. Junior All-OAC sprinter Grace Nemeth (Medina) turned in the fifth-fastest time in both the 100-meter dash preliminaries and finals, running times of 12.74 and 12.79 seconds, respectively. Nemeth also finished ninth in the 200-meter dash in 26.17 seconds. Freshman All-OAC distance runner Josh Hickmott (Clay, N.Y./Liverpool) finished off the meet for the Yellow Jackets by taking eighth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:17.60.
The Yellow Jackets will now wait and see which athletes qualify to the National Championships, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse at the Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex May 24-26.
