Allegheny College placed 1-2-3 in the men's 5,000 meters and Oberlin's Joanna Johnson (Chico, Calif./Chico) set a new meet record in the women's 5K to highlight the first day of competition at the 2009 North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championship from the Mitchell Center on the campus of Denison University.

In the men's competition, through three events, Allegheny leads with 36 points.  Ohio Wesleyan checks in second with 24 points and Earlham is third with 16 points.

Through four events in the women's half, Ohio Wesleyan is in the top spot with 40 points followed by Denison with 25.5 points.  Allegheny is right behind in third with 25 points and Oberlin is fourth with 20.

For the men Allegheny's Chris Marker (Arlington, Va./Yorktown) covered the 5,000 meters in 15:10.87 to edge teammate Ryan Hanson (Presto, Pa./Chartiers Valley) by less than one second.  Gator junior Jakeb Zimmerman (Leechburg, Pa./The Kiski School) placed third helping his squad to 25 points in the events.

In the men's triple jump, Allegheny's Joe McMahon (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) won with a jump of 46'3.25".  Ealrham's Chad Wertman (Holland, Ind./Southridge) locked up the first individual title for the Quakers since Dan Reis' win in the 2004 shot put.  In this year's shot put Wertman threw a distance of 50'10.00" which was just three-quarters of an inch short of an NCAA provisional qualifying distance.

For the women, Johnson's second-straight win in the 5K was the highlight as she crossed the finish line in 17:37.37 to break Katie Wiefrich of Wooster's conference record that was set in 2006.  Denison's Katie Navarre (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Upper Arlington) placed second in 17:48.32.

The Yeowomen got a second individual championship thanks to Laura Vernon's (Gwynedd Valley, Pa./Gwynedd Mercy) win in the pole vault.  She cleared 10'2.75" to hold off Ohio Wesleyan's Chelsea Imm.

Rounding out the winners on Friday night were Allegheny freshman Lauren Butler (New Kensington, Pa./Kiski Area) in the shot put and Wooster senior Kayla Miller (Mercer, Pa./Mercer Area) in the triple jump.  Butler uncorked a throw of 40'4.75" on her very last throw to clinch the victory.  Miller's win in the triple jump came when she covered 34'9.75" on her second to last attempt.  She topped Denison sophomore Claire Navarro (Seal Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) who placed second with a jump of 33'9.25".

Saturday's finals will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the men's high jump and the women's long jump.  The championship will conclude with the awards ceremony at 5:45 p.m.

View Results