Ohio Northern men finish 3rd at 2010 OAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships

ALLIANCE -- Seniors Jacob Weyrauch and Alan Bowsher and the 4x800-meter relay team all claimed titles to lead the Ohio Northern men to a third place finish at the 2010 Ohio Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships Friday and Saturday at Mount Union Stadium.

The Polar Bears (35-11) finished with 118.5 points. Heidelberg won the team title with 158, Marietta was second with 128.5 and Baldwin-Wallace was fourth with 100.

Bowsher won the 10,000-meter run on Friday night, finishing in 32:37.23.

He also earned All-Conference accolades in the 5,000-meter run, finishing second in 15:11.75.

Weyrauch won the pole vault by clearing an NCAA Provisional height of 16'.

The 4x800 relay squad of junior Travis Isenberg, sophomore Corey Bailey, sophomore Dan Smith and freshman Ben Ankrom won the OAC crown by crossing the line in 7:42.53.

"We had some solid individual performances today," ONU head coach Jason Maus said. "But overall, we were not sharp. For us to win the team title, we needed to be sharp and we weren't. We also needed some help from other teams and didn't get it. We competed well and had a solid effort, but Heidelberg just had a great day."

Six other Polar Bears also earned All-Conference accolades by virtue of top-3 finishes in their respective events.

Junior Garrett Brown grabbed All-OAC honors in both of the hurdle events, finishing second in the 400 hurdles in :55.17 and third in the 100 hurdles in :15.66.

Senior Joe Amstutz was second in the 400 in :48.83. He also placed sixth in the 200 in :22.67.

Junior Evan Heyman was third in the 200 in :22.26 and also placed sixth in the 400 in :49.81.

Smith was second in the 1500 run in 3:58.95 and also scored points by placing fourth in the 800 run in 1:57.35.

Ankrom earned All-OAC honors in the 800 run, finishing third in 1:57.29. He also placed fourth in the 1500 in 4:00.87.

Two other relay teams earned All-Conference accolades with third place finishes.

The 4x100 relay team was third in :42.47 and the 4x400 relay team was third in 3:19.19.

The 4x100 squad was made up of senior Ryan Fleming, Amstutz, Heyman and sophomore Travis Althouse and the 4x400 team was comprised of junior Shane Huntley, Brown, senior Mike Johnson and Amstutz.

The Polar Bears will return to action next weekend at the Toledo Invitational.