CEDARVILLE, Ohio – Four men's and six women's events were completed as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships went off and running at the Doden Field House on the campus of Cedarville University.
Friday's action featured the completion of the full women's pentathlon and the start of the men's heptathlon. A number of preliminaries were conducted in running events and student-athletes put their talents on display in the throwing cage, vault runway and jumps pits as well.
Findlay is out in front of both team races after winning the women's weight throw, pole vault and 5K. Paige Emnett was the first official championship winner with in the weight throw to give her team 10 early points.
It was jubilation and pure emotion for junior distance specialist Gabrielle Lawrence as she held off a pair of hard-charging Hillsdale second and third-place finishers to capture the 5K. The pole vault competition didn't disappoint with one auto qualifier and three more provisional heights met.
The top seed going in, sophomore Morgan England, cleared 4.10m and actually attempted to sky over 4.18m with fellow competitors cheering her on. England added to a banner day for the Oilers with a new conference meet record and the No. 2 overall height in conference history, second to only her own (4.16m).
Findlay also scored big points in the long jump with all-conference status earned by Simone Green and Madison Myers in second and third.
Findlay has 82 points in the women's scoring followed by Tiffin with 48 and defending conference team champion Hillsdale sits in third with 45.
Tiffin's Jazilee Williams was out on the track pretty much all day long while successfully defending her pentathlon crown and surged to the long jump title as well. Williams scored 3,534 points, a top five mark in conference history.
She recorded a distance of 5.68m in the long jump and will be competing in other finals sprints on Saturday, including the 60-meter hurdles where she was the top qualifier.
All top three finishers in the men's 5K broke the previous conference championship meet record, Malone's Noah Schaub, Findlay's Noah Fisher and Walsh's Drew Roberts. Not a lot of teams have run in the distance medley relay this season but Walsh showed their depth and prowess in the distance event while sweeping both men's and women's races.
Findlay paced the men's team scoring by capturing conference titles in the weight throw with junior Sterling Mungro drawing oohs and ahhs for his auto qualifying distance. Tiffin's John Casper had one of the day's most emotional responses following his 19.29m heave, another provisional mark coming from the league.
With three events remaining, Findlay's Keandre Marlow also has a lead in the men's heptathlon competition. Tiffin's Quincy Scott already own seven of the top 10 marks in the long jump and continued his dominance with a winning leap of 7.28m this year.
Competition continues on Saturday starting at 9 am ET with men's and women's high jump.