Oshkosh wins in Marietta

In this case, the Titans of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh have good reason to be remembered.

UW-Oshkosh claimed its first NCAA men's outdoor track & field championship with senior distance specialist William Kaul and sophomore thrower Tony Baker leading the charge. Kaul followed up Thursday's evening win in the 10,000-meter run (30:54.56) by finishing fourth in the 5,000-meter run final in 14:46.38 in high heat conditions.

Baker, on the heels of his victory in the discus (165-8) Friday, delivered a fifth-place showing in the hammer throw (176-1) Saturday for another critical four points.

Article Photos

KEVIN PIERSON The Marietta Times
Marietta College's Zach Gay clears the bar in the high jump Saturday afternoon during the NCAA Outdoor Track championships hosted by Marietta College at Don Drumm Stadium.

Earlier Saturday, it was Oshkosh's 4x100 relay team of A.J. Hollanquests, Brent Jude, Dean Jensen and Chad Churchill that came through with a fourth-place finish, earning five team points.

Individually, junior Bill Zill turned in a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles, while junior James Simms was fifth in the triple jump.

Every little bit helped the Titans edge defending champion McMurry College of Abiliene, Texas, 46-40, with the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) placing third with 39 points. St. Thomas picked up 20 points alone by winning the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

"We weren't that confident coming in," said Hollanquests, who ran the lead leg on the 4x100 relay. "We were looking at being a trophy team and finishing in the top four, but everything was going our way and it started looking good. Today, we were pretty confident going in that if we did what we were supposed to, we could win."

"This is a really fine group of young men and I'm really happy for them," UW-Oshkosh head coach John Zupanc said. "They've worked hard. I mean everybody works hard, but we were just fortunate to have it all fall into place."

Wisconsin-Oshkosh had been the host site for the outdoor nationals in 2007 and 2008, but Zupanc downplayed if that had been a factor in the Titans breaking through to the title this season. The Titans also prevailed as the NCAA men's indoor track champion earlier this year.

"We have been a pretty steady team at nationals over the years," Zupanc said. "We just had an awesome meet. Our guys really came through today, actually the last three days have been about picture perfect for us."

Every little bit helped the Titans edge defending champion McMurry College of Abiliene, Texas, 46-40, with the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) placing third with 39 points. St. Thomas picked up 20 points alone by winning the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

MC freshman update

Of local interest, Marietta College freshman Jayshon Irvin placed sixth in the 100-meter dash finals in 10.88 seconds, while Pioneer junior Zach Gay finished in a tie for eighth place in the high jump as he cleared 6-8. Both earned all-American honors by finishing in the top eight.

"I wanted to finish in the top four but I'm happy with what I got," Irvin said. "It went by pretty quick."

Asked about how he prepared for the finals, Irvin said, "I just thought about having fun. I tried not to think about it too much but I couldn't help it because it's such a big race."

Women's results

On the women's side, Wartburg College of Waverly, Iowa, had been in the winner's circle once before, back in 2005, but coach Marcus Newsom assembled a new cast for this year's nationals.

Amazingly, the Knights came into Saturday without a single point on the ledger, but that was of little concern to Newsom.

"I tell our kids all the time that it's what you have to do on day one," Newsom said. "We don't even talk about the final days except (to say) if you don't take care of the preliminary rounds on Thursday or Friday, you don't get to Saturday.

"I felt confident and good about where we were at. We had some things go our way and we had some things that didn't go our way. To me, track and field is a true national championship. We did it together across the board from the field events to the sprints to the distance events."

Wartburg finished with 52 points to brush aside UW-Oshkosh (50), UW-La Crosse (48) and UW-Eau Claire (34.5).

Senior triple jumper Akeye Aimable provided a prime example of Newsom's logic. Her effort from the first round measured 3910 3/4 and was good enough to stand.

"We knew what we had to do and what points we had to rack up on the last day," Aimable said. "We had confidence that everybody could get the job done.

"As for me, I just kind of did my thing. I tried my best and I figured that would be good enough," added Aimable, who attended high school in Waterloo, Iowa, roughly 20 minutes from the Wartburg College campus.

Wartburg's 4x400 relay team of Nevada Morrison, Chelsey Jacobs, Jenny Kordick and Hannah Baker added to the dramatics by winning the meet's last event in convincing fashion in 3:43.48, some 3.53 seconds ahead of Illinois Wesleyan.We did it together across the board from the field events to the sprints to the distance events.

Warrren alum competes

Of local interest, former Warren High School multi-sport star Summer Baumgard closed out her collegiate career at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., as she finished in a tie for 12th place in the women's high jump with nine others.

"All the jumpers were talking about it a little bit," Baumgard said. "You always have to end on a low note because you have to miss in order to finish the competition. I was just excited to come out here and compete. Being here is awesome, but to place would have been that much scarier."

Baumgard had a different perspective than most of the other athletes on hand for the weekend's festivities.

"It was cool," Baumgard said. "Seeing everybody was really excited here in Marietta. It was fun to be around that atmosphere and to be 'home' for my final meet."

Baumgard opted to stay at the an area hotel so that she could concentrate on the task at hand. If she stayed at her parent's home, she'd likely drift into planning for her wedding to Marietta College graduate Adam Spencer.

Baumgard recently graduated from Washington & Jefferson with a degree in French and secondary education and considering her job opportunities.

"I thinking about coaching, too," she said.

Baumgard plans to get married in early June and is getting ready for a subsquent move to Columbus.

The 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will shift to Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea next spring.