Mar. 14, 2008

By Zach Stipe

ADA — Monmouth leads after Day 1 of the NCAA III Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday at the ONU Sports Center.

Monmouth senior Jonny Henkins grabbed the pole vault title, while teammate senior Peter Sprecher finished fifth in the event. Senior Zach Wilson added a third-place finish in the 35-pound weight throw as Monmouth finished the day with 20 points.

Paced by a victory from its distance medley relay team, Wisconsin-Platteville sits in second place with 13 points.

The pole vault came down to three competitors on the final height. Based on the number of misses tiebreaker, Henkins grabbed the title at 16-9.5.

North Central sophomore Jake Windler placed second and Loras junior Kyle Calvert placed third as they both cleared 16-9.5, as well.

Wisconsin-Platteville’s distance medley relay battled from behind to win first-place in 9:59.71. The relay consisted of senior Cameron Klein, junior Adam Buss, junior Tony Kilburg, and senior Tyler Sigl, the reigning individual national champion from cross country.

Sigl blew past Wisconsin-La Crosse senior Paul Zdroik during the last lap of the race to capture the victory by over two seconds.

Moravian senior Beresford Brown and Bates senior Noah Gauthier each set NCAA III season-best performances en route to winning field event titles.

Brown won the long jump with a leap of 23-11.75. He also was the top qualifier in the prelims of the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.47.

Gauthier threw a distance of 63-1.5 to win the men's 35-pound weight throw by nearly a foot.

Field event prelims and finals start on Saturday morning at 10 a.m., while running event finals begin at 2:30 p.m.