By JOHN LICHINA
Contributing Writer
[email protected]
In their first conference meet of the calendar year, the men’s track and field team swept the distance and middistance events, earning them second place out of four teams.
The Gators competed against host Wooster and other conference opponents including Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyon.
Cross country All-American Bobby Over, ’13, led the Gator charge with two impressive performances. Over took the mile with a time of 4:18.39, which was seven seconds faster than the nearest finisher.
Both Over and Vlah competed in the 800 meter run, with Vlah finishing in first by less than a quarter of a second.
The two competed in different heats, despite their almost identical times.
“We wanted to be in the same race because we’ve never raced together in the 800,” said Vlah about his teammate Over.
Vlah’s good day continued with a distance medley relay victory from seniors Taylor Throckmorton and Greg Eyer and sophomore Jack Denison.
Kevin Edwards, ’13, closed out the sweep of distance events with a victory in the 3,000 meter run, the first win of his career.
The sweep marks another strong performance by the Gators, who have been dominant within the North Coast Athletic Conference.
“Just the fact that it says ‘Gators’ or ‘Allegheny’ on our jersey gives them reason enough to fear us,” Over said.
The meet held last weekend at the Scot Center was the team’s first look at conference opponents since their second place finish during the cross country season this fall. Over and his teammates looked to re-establish their dominance.
“There is an intimidation factor when people go up against us because they know we are very well prepared,” Wilkerson said.
Despite their success in distance events, the Gators were outpaced by the Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan by a difference of 146 points. Wilkerson views the Battling Bishops as tough competition looking ahead.
“OWU is kind of on a different level,” said Wilkerson. “We just need more bodies.”
In addition to their distance victories, Allegheny took home victories in the long and triple jump events.
Throckmorton captured a first place finish in the long jump, while senior Jacob Seigh took the triple.
Despite their six overall event winners, the Gators still have work to do.
“But we are missing a lot of those mid-rank points,” said Wilkerson, “We are working really hard to pick up those points.”
The team will get their next opportunity to perform this weekend at the Jim Wuske Invitational at Mt. Union College.
