Freshman Stella DeWitt leads No. 7 Women's Track & Field during annual Joe Banks Invitational
By Caleb Scott
ADA — Freshman Stella DeWitt (Weston/Cardinal Stritch Catholic) swept the long jump and triple jump as the No. 7-ranked Ohio Northern women's track and field team competed at the annual Joe Banks Invitational on Saturday afternoon at the Kinghorn Fieldhouse.
Northern finished second of 14 teams in the meet with 143.5 points and improved 15-2 on the season.
DeWitt claimed the triple jump with a leap of 34' 11.00", before winning the long jump with a jump of 18' 00.50".
Senior Elizabeth Werner (Batesville) added a third place finish in the triple jump with a leap 33' 8.50".
The distance medley relay team of juniors Ashlie Baumann (Sterling Heights, Mich./Stevenson), Michaela Fox (Bellevue) and Avery Ewing (Kokomo, Ind./Eastern), and sophomore Zoe Schilling (East Sparta/Canton Central Catholic) got Northern off to a fast start as they set a new meet record in the event with a time of 13:05.40.
In the 60-meter dash, sophomore Taylor Lavey (New Baltimore, Mich./Findlay) claimed first place in 8.00.
Lavey would then team up with junior Taylor Fisher (Wapakoneta), senior Mallory Weininger (Upper Sandusky) and DeWitt to claim a third place finish in the 4x200-meter in 1:50.47.
Ewing and Fisher finished 1-3 in the 500-meter dash, respectively as Ewing won the race in 1:19.79 and Fisher finished third in the event in 1:23.84.
Northern claimed three of the top four spots in the pole vault as junior Maddy Reed (Piketon) led the way with a first place finish and leap of 12' 8.75".
Sophomore Maggie Krause (Chagrin Falls/Kenston) was third in the event with a vault of 11' 3.00", while senior Kelly Wollenslegel (Clyde) finished fourth in the event with a leap of 11' 3.00".
Junior Tia Harris (Newton Falls) narrowly missed breaking the school record in the shot put with a third place toss of 41' 1.50", while freshman Megan Wright (Eaton/Twin Valley South) added a third place finish in the 5,000-meter run in 19:47.63.
Fox posted another top-3 finish for Northern in the 1,000-meter run as she finished third in the event in 3:18.16.
"This was a nice meet for us today," said head coach Jason Maus. "This is a good meet for us. It's a very good tune up. The alumni really showed well today to support us and its always nice getting to see all of those guys come back. We saw a lot of marks get bettered today. Reed had a better day in the pole vault, DeWitt had a really nice meet. Harris threw really well today for us too. Those are just a couple of highlights of today and we have a lot to be proud of going forward."
The Polar Bears return to action next Feb. 10 as they compete in the All-Ohio Championships at Westerville.
Team Standings
1. Otterbein 155, 2. Ohio Northern 143.5, 3. Case Western 83.5, 4. John Carroll 67, 5. Heidelberg 58, t6. Albion (Mich.) 38.5, t6. Wittenberg 38.5, 8. Ohio Christian 33, 9. Ohio Dominican 29.5, 10. Capital 25, 11. Bluffton 15.5, 12. Defiance 13, 13. Malone 9, 14. Ursuline 6
