By Patrick Brean
The Bluffton Track and Field team divided its efforts between two high-caliber meets and came away with exciting performances from a number of Beaver athletes.
On Friday night, vaulter Terrill Webb (Kenton), and the throws team ventured up I-75 to the University of Findlay. Webb highlighted the proceedings with an indoor PR, a school record, along with an HCAC leading and a 13th placing on the NCAA nationals list with a clearance of 11-7.75.
The throwers also had their day as well with D'Nea Reese (Columbus/Upper Arlington) tossing the weight for an amazing 5 foot 2 inch PR of 45 feet and 7 inches, a mark that moves her to fourth on the HCAC qualifying list. DiVaunta Spearman (Sandusky/Willard) also set a PR in the weight throw with a heave of 42 feet.
On Saturday, a select group of athletes headed east to the shores of Lake Erie to the SPIRE oversized oval and the SPIRE Midwest Track and Field Open.
Trey Everett (Sidney/Fairlawn) wowed the crowd with a near 7-foot clearance officially measured at 6 feet and 11 inches and he won the competition over a field of 26, many of which were NAIA and NCAA Division II athletes! This clearance moves him into second on the NCAA nationals list, first on the All-Ohio list and first on the HCAC list.
Trey is virtually assured a berth in the NCAA Division 3 National Indoor Track and Field Championships to be contested in North Carolina in March. While Trey's jump was the highlight of the meet for the Beavers, Terrill Webb vaulted for a second consecutive day and placed eighth in a field of 48.
Sarah Hunter (Mt. Blanchard/Riverdale) followed her record-breaking performance in the 800 meters from last week with a time nearly as fast, and a placement of seventh out of 43 runners. The afternoon’s events were topped off with the men’s 4x400 relay of Trey Everett, Brandon Lowery (Perrysburg), Augie Espinoza (Prescott Valley, Ari./Bradshaw Mountain) and Ty White (Prescott Valley, Ari./Bradshaw Mountain) coming up only .07 of a second short of breaking the school record.
Everett, of course, is the athlete of the weekend and while his performances are amazing, he maintains a humbled demeanor.
Coach McCoy, Trey’s event coach, had this to say, “Trey is an extremely gifted athlete and today he combined that with the difficult challenge of fine tuning several key components in his approach to create a truly spectacular event to watch! I can not wait to see what the rest of the season holds for him as he continues to pursue records and hopefully national recognition in the high jump.”
The track squad is back in action this Saturday, Feb. 7, at the ONU Joe Banks Invitational. With only two weeks until the All-Ohio championship meet and three weeks until the HCAC championship meet, the team will look forward to honing their skills as they work toward those two very pivotal indoor competitions.
