DELAWARE, Ohio – Eight All-Ohio performances led the Baldwin Wallace University women's outdoor track and field teams to a third-place finish at the All-Ohio Outdoor Championships, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University on the George Gauthier Track.
BW placed third of 20 teams overall with 86 points. Otterbein University won the All-Ohio meet with 136 total points.
The top three individual athletes in each event earn All-Ohio honors while the members of the top three relay teams also receive the accolades.
In the field, junior All-Ohio Athletic Conference and Academic All-OAC thrower Brooke Buckhannon (Collins/Western Reserve) got the Yellow Jackets off to a good start with a runner-up finish in the hammer throw, hitting a career-best mark of 168 feet, 11 inches to rank sixth nationally at the time of meet. The junior then took third in the shot put with a career-best toss of 43'1.5", which puts Buckhannon 18th in the country. She capped off her day with a fifth-place finish in the discus with a mark of 130'1".
Junior two-time All-American distance runner Kelly Brennan (Akron/Walsh Jesuit) captured the Yellow Jackets' only All-Ohio title as she won the 800-meter run in 2:14.06, which puts her eighth nationally at the time of the meet. Brennan also placed second in the 1,500-meter run in a time of 4:37.87 to rank 13th in that event.
Also bringing home a pair of All-Ohio runner-up finishes was senior All-OAC sprinter Grace Nemeth (Medina). After posting a career-best time of 12.33 seconds in the 100-meter dash preliminaries, Nemeth placed second in the finals in a time of 12.42 seconds. Her preliminary time ties for 19th in all of NCAA Division III. The senior then took second in the 200-meter dash in a career best 25.47 seconds, which ties for 23rd in the country before meets began on Saturday.
A pair of freshmen in All-OAC hurdler Amanda Milo (Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) and distance runner Alyssa Laughner (Howard, Pa./Central Mountain) placed third for All-Ohio accolades. Milo posted a time of 15.04 seconds in the 100-meter hurdle preliminaries to advance to the finals, where she finished third in a time of 15.12 seconds. Meanwhile, in her first outdoor 5,000-meter run, Laughner ran a time of 18:15.05 for her All-Ohio honor.
In relay action, the quad of freshman sprinter Nina Curry (North Olmsted), junior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC distance runner Katie Fowler (Mount Vernon), Milo and Brennan combined for a fifth-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay in a time of 4:06.60.
BW will host its first outdoor meet on Saturday, April 20, for the 50th Sparky Adams Invitational, beginning at 10:30 a.m. inside George Finnie Stadium.
