Ohio Wesleyan logged three, first-place finishes on Saturday while piling up 12, top-3 performances over the course of the two-day meet en route to their second consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference men's indoor track and field championship.

The Battling Bishops finished with a 16-event total of 148.5 points, landing them 11.5 points in front of second-place Allegheny College.  Third place ended in a tie between Denison and Oberlin who each scored 73 points.  Wabash College checked in fifth with 61.5 points while Wittenberg (56), Wooster (31), Kenyon (23) and Earlham (21) rounded out the rest of the standings.

The NCAC's Sprints/Hurdler of the Year award went to Denison's Michael Barnes for a second-straight year.  Barnes racked up his fourth and fifth career victories on Saturday in the 200 and 400 meter dashes.  In the 200 he came from behind to edge Oberlin's Soloman Turner by one-tenth of a second with a time of 22.58.  He would also notch his third career win in the 400 meters thanks to his time of 50.23.  In four years at the NCAC Indoor Championship Barnes has registered 12, top-3 finishes.

Despite falling to Barnes in the 200, Turner achieved gold earlier in the meet after winning the 55 meter dash with a time of 6.58.  Allegheny's Josh Brannan was second with a time of 6.59.

The field event MVP award went to Wittenberg's Erik Larkin who won the long jump by covering 22'0.25".  He also placed third in the high jump, clearing 6'0" and took second in the triple jump on Friday night. 

The distance/mid-distance runner of the year plaque was awarded to Allegheny's Jeramie Parker who took first place in the mile with a time of 4:13.85.  He held off teammate Tony Dipre who trailed by just two one-hundredths of a second.  Denison's Dee Salukombo placed third in 4:15.27.  All three individuals logged NCAA provisional times.

New meet records were set in two events on Saturday.  In the Distance Medley Relay Allegheny's team of Dipre, Matt Brush, Greg Eyer and Jermaine Parker shattered the old mark of 10:32.44 set by Wooster in 2002 with their winning time of 10:25.31.  Ohio Wesleyan took second in 10:32.00 and Denison was third in 10:32.10.  All three times were new NCAC records.

The other conference mark to fall by the wayside came in the final event of the championship as Oberlin's team of Turner, Peter Morris, Reshard El-Shair, Seth Wimberly clocked a meet record time of 3:22.77.  In the 55 meter hurdles, Ohio Wesleyan's Steve Brown crossed in 7.66 seconds to top Wabash's Emmanuel Aouad who finished in 7.72 seconds.  Both were NCAA provisional qualifying times.

The 3,000 meters won by an Allegheny Gator for the sixth straight year after Ryan Hanson's time of 8:48.38 topped Chris Marker of Allegheny.  The Gators' sixth win of the meet came in the pole vault as Peter Sotherland cleared 14'4" to take home the gold.  Wooster's Robert McConnell was second with a height of 13'2.25".

The Bishops' final two victories would come in the men's 800 meters and the 4x200 meter relay.  In the 800 Kyle Lemke covered his four laps in 1:56.75 to hold off Denison's Lex Hultquist.  The 4x200 relay team of Ryan Ellis, Sean Patrick, Nathan Osborn and Preston Osborn repeated as champions after combining for a time of 1:31.61. 

In the men's high jump Wabash's Wes Chamblee cleared 6'3.5" to hold off last year's champion, David Burke, of Ohio Wesleyan.

This marked Ohio Wesleyan's eighth men's indoor track and field championship.  Head Coach Kris Boey was named the NCAC Coach of the Year for the second time.

View Results