OWENSBORO, Ky. – With a cumulative total of 267 points piled up, Tiffin went back-to-back to earn the program’s second championship title at the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Outdoor Track & Field meet that ended on Friday.
The Dragons had an impressive combination of performances at the Owensboro Track & Field Complex that resulted in a long parade of all-conference honors up at the awards podium.
Tiffin has now won the 2019 and 2021 outdoor conference meets, both possible opportunities for head coach Jeremy Croy and his programs since joining the Great Midwest as a member institution in the 2018-19 academic year.
This year, Tiffin set a pace that was exhausting, outscoring runner-up Findlay by over 100 points through the 21 events counted. The Oilers, recently the indoor champs at Cedarville, earned 158 points. Hillsdale was also over the century mark with 100.5 while Walsh finished fourth 90. Malone rounded out the top five programs in the scoring with 66 points.
Tiffin and Findlay shared the Great Midwest Field Athlete of the Meet honors as TU’s Lloyd McCurdy and UF’s Austin Combs, each contributed 20 points with a pair of victories in their respective events.
McCurdy won the javelin and the triple jump while Combs won discus and hammer throw. McCurdy shattered the overall and conference meet record in the triple jump at 15.68m while Combs destroyed the overall and conference meet record in the discus with a distance of 70.09m.
The Great Midwest Track Athlete of the Meet award went to Tiffin’s Elijah Gauldin, who led all individuals with 20.50 scored for his team. Gauldin was the winner of the 100-meter dash, runner-up in the 200-meter dash and helped Tiffin win the 4x100-meter relay.
Great Midwest Freshman of the Meet Noah Fisher of Findlay put on a display to remember in the long distance events. Fisher was atop of the awards podium in both the 5K and the 10K. Fisher broke the conference meet record in the 5K.
Multiple performances landed in the top 10 or new conference meet record category, with each feat getting more and more difficult as the league continues to grow and expand. A total of eight different conference meet records were set by the men in 2021.
Both relay races, the 4x100 and 4x400, were erased by Tiffin as new meet records. Tiffin also blew away previous meet bests in the 110-meter hurdles by Errik Snell and the 400-meter hurdles by Lenell Shelby III. Snell broke a previous record held by current NFL WR on the Indianapolis Colts Ashton Dulin (Malone).
Another meet record that went down was the 400-meter dash courtesy of Findlay’s All-American Xavier Marable.
Earlier, McCurdy and Combs’ accomplishments were noted as new conference and meet records.