HILLSDALE, Mich. – Junior outdoor All-American distance runner Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) broke her second Baldwin Wallace University school record of the season at the two-day Hillsdale "Wide Track" Open, hosted by NCAA Division II Hillsdale (Mich.) College inside the Margot V. Biermann Athletic Center.
Against mostly Division II competition, BW finished second of 19 teams with 85 points while Academy of Art (Calif.) University won the meet with 96 points.
Having already broken the 5,000-meter record earlier this season, Brennan broke the 32-year-old 3,000-meter school record by winning the championship heat on day one in a time of 10:07.86. She improved on the previous record by almost 3 seconds and beat the second-place runner by 7 seconds. Brennan's school record time currently stands 13th in the country at the time of the meet.
The distance crew also had an impressive showing in the 5,000-meter championship run as three Yellow Jackets finished in the top five. Freshman distance runner Ellie Templeton (Westlake) ran a career-best time of 19:48.58 to place third. Sophomore distance runners Molina Otte (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) and Megan Vaughn (Amherst/Firelands) crossed the finish line in fourth and fifth, respectively, in times of 19:55.90 and 20:15.01, respectively.
Freshman hurdler/sprinter Amanda Milo (Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) advanced all the way through to the 60-meter hurdle finals where she placed seventh overall in a time of 9.29 seconds. She posted the seventh-fastest time in the preliminaries at 9.24 seconds and ran 9.26 seconds in the semifinals.
Staying on the track, senior All-OAC sprinter Grace Nemeth (Medina) ran a time of 8.10 seconds in the 60-meter dash prelims to advance to the semifinals, where she placed 14th in a time of 8.11 seconds. Nemeth also finished third in the 200-meter dash with a career-best time of 25.79 seconds.
Junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC thrower Brooke Buckhannon (Collins/Western Reserve) had the best result for the Yellow Jackets in the field when she finished fifth in the weight throw, hitting a career-best mark of 51 feet, 7 inches.
In relay action, sophomore All-OAC distance runner Madison Kile (North Canton/Hoover), freshman distance runner Natalie Vinci (Canton/St. Thomas Aquinas), sophomore All-OAC distance runner Rebecca Penrose (Springfield/Shawnee) and junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC distance runner Katie Fowler (Mount Vernon) finished fifth in the distance medley relay in 13:16.08.
On the second day of competition, sophomore All-Ohio Athletic Conference distance runner Hastings Marek (Pataskala/Watkins Memorial) won the 1-mile run in a career-best time of 5:17.05 while junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC distance runner Bella Pendola (Warsaw/River View) was the runner-up in the 800-meter run as she crossed the finish line in a career-best 2:23.74. Brennan also followed up her school record in the 3,000 with a third-place finish in the 800 championship event in 2:17.76.
BW returns home on Friday, Feb. 8, to host the Mid-February Meet on the Harrison Dillard Track inside the Lou Higgins Center Fieldhouse. Field events begin at 4 p.m. while the running events will begin at 5 p.m.
