Throwers Lead Women's Indoor Track and Field on Day 1 of OAC Championships

Sophomore thrower Brooke Buckhannon earned her first career All-OAC honors with a second place finish in the weight throw

Posted: Feb 23, 2018

BEXLEY, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University women's indoor track and field team were led by the throwers as the Yellow Jackets sit in fourth place after the first day of the 2018 Ohio Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Capital University inside The Capital Center.

The Yellow Jacket women are in fourth place of 10 teams with 23 total points while Ohio Northern University leads the women's side with 39.5 points.

BW had three placers in the weight throw event, led by sophomore Brooke Buckhannon (Collins/Western Reserve) who brought home her first All-OAC honor with a second place finish. Buckhannon had a career-best toss of 50 feet, 7.25 inches. Senior Madeline Ziccardi (Cuyahoga Falls) came in fifth place with a 46'6.25" mark and sophomore All-OAC thrower Jillian Roberts (Broadview Heights/Brecksville-Broadview Heights) placed sixth at 45'1.75". In the pole vault, freshman jumper Abby Lewicki (Medina/Highland) took eighth place, earning one point, by clearing a career-best mark of 10'6.75".

Sophomore All-OAC distance runners of Bella Pendola (Warsaw/River View) and Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) went seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 5,000-meter race, running times of 18:30.72 and 18:35.66, respectively.

In women's relay action, the team of freshman distance runner Madison Kile (North Canton/Hoover), freshman sprinter Ky'leana Allen (Columbus/Bishop Hartley), freshman distance runner Rebecca Penrose (Springfield/Shawnee) and freshman distance runner Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial) earned All-OAC honors in the distance medley relay with a third place finish in a season-best time of 12:38.16.

On the track, junior sprinter Grace Nemeth (Medina) ran a career-best 8.04 seconds in the 60-meter dash preliminaries and qualified for the 60 finals on Saturday. Nemeth also qualified for the 200-meter dash finals by running a time of 26.18 seconds, the third fastest time in the preliminaries and a career best.

BW will return to The Capital Center tomorrow, Saturday, February 24, to compete in the final day of the OAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Capital.