Men's and Women's Track & Field combine for an NCAA auto mark and three NCAA provo marks at Gregory Invitational

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - The Ohio Northern men's and women's track & field teams combined to turn in one NCAA automatic qualifying mark and three NCAA provisional qualifying marks at the Gregory Invitational hosted by North Central (Ill.) on Thursday and Friday.

The event was a non-scoring competition.

Sophomore Nicole Hope finished second had the only automatic mark by duplicating her ONU-record performance in the pole vault by clearing 12-8.

Junior Aubrie Stechschulte fell just short of her season best in the event but was able to clear an provisional mark at 11-8, good enough for a fourth-place finish.

Senior Brittany Farber turned in the final provisional mark on the women's side, finishing the 800-meter run in 2:14.21 and in 13th place.

The men's 4x400-meter relay team of juniors Shane Huntley, Garrett Brown and Evan Heyman and senior Joe Amstutz ran a season best and an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 3:15.29. The foursome finished sixth.

Senior Mike Johnson and junior Joe Gutter both had season-best performances in their respective events. Johnson was 12th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.27, while Gutter finished sixth in the hammer throw with a distance of 162-04.

Senior Jacob Weyrauch nearly hit the NCAA provisional mark of 15-5 again by clearing 15-4.25 in the pole vault.

Junior Ryan Fleming had a solid performance in the 100-meter dash with a fourth-place finish in 10.96, just .01 seconds off of his fastest time of the season.

Ohio Northern will send athletes to the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Baldwin-Wallace next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.