DELAWARE, Ohio - After the first of three days at the 2014 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track & Field Championship from Selby Stadium and the George Gauthier Track on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University, North Central (Ill.) leads the field with 20 points through four events. Mount Union and Wisconsin-La Crosse are tied for second place with 12 points, while Dubuque and Ohio Northern sit in a tie for fourth place with 10 points.
All 20 of North Central's points came in the 10,000-meter finals as the Cardinals occupied first, third, and fifth place on the podium. Senior John Crain won the event with a time of 31:11.83. It marked his fourth career national championship across the indoor and outdoor seasons. Chris Stadler of Haverford College placed in 31:17.50 while North Central's Troy Kelleher and Roger Klein took positions three and five, respectively, to round out the Cardinals' 20 points.
The first national championship of this year's meet went to Mount Union junior Sean Donnelly, who set a new stadium record in the hammer throw with a distance of 216-7. That throw also ranks as the third-best performance in NCAA Division III history. Finishing second was Tyler Williams of Widener University, who posted a throw of 213-9. Third place was logged by John Cooper, a senior out of Wisconsin-La Crosse, who logged a distance of 202-5.
There was plenty of drama surrounding the pole vault final as Rick Valcin of Dubuque would tie Michael Bennett of the University of Chicago with a height of 16-10¾. The pair would enter into a vault-off, where Valcin would come away with the victory after clearing the bar at the aforementioned height in his first attempt.
In the finals of the long jump, Ohio Northern senior Josh Colbert came away with the gold after posting a leap of 24-5¾. The runner-up in the long jump was Jamie Ruginski of Southern Maine, who posted a distance of 24'0.25". Dominique Neloms of Wisconsin-La Crosse placed third with 23-8¾.
At the midway point of the decathlon, Brandon Zarnoth of Wisconsin-Eau Claire leads the 20-man field with a total of 3737 points. He will take a 47-point lead into Friday's final five events. Zarnoth placed second in the 100 meter dash with a time of :10.84, and was second in the 400 meters in :49.28. He also posted a third-place finish in the long jump.
Trailing Zarnoth in second place was Christopher Newport junior Richard Roethel, who recorded a score of 3690 points. Checking in third was Ohio Wesleyan junior Matt Hunter (3636), while fourth and fifth place, respectively went to Adrian Samsel of MIT (3596), and Dan Sisler of St. Norbert (3590).
Hunter was the winner in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.72 seconds. Gustavus Adolphus' Cameron Clause took first in the long jump with a distance of 22-1½. In the shot put, it was Sisler out of St. Norbert who topped the field with a throw of 44-11.
The high jump victory went to Baldwin Wallace junior Brandon Eddy, who cleared 6-7½. Roethel was second with a height of 6-6¼. The final event of the afternoon was the 400-meter dash that was won by Samsel out of MIT in 49.25.
Six running events also had preliminaries determining qualifiers for Friday and Saturday's finals. In the 3000-meter steeplechase, Dawson Miller of Wisconsin-Whitewater is seeded first with a time of 9:08.10.
Zach Haskins of Bethel (Minn.) is the leader after the 1500-meter preliminaries as he logged a time of 3:49.42.
In the preliminaries of the 400-meter hurdles, Luke Campbell of Salisbury University set the pace, crossing the finish in 51.82 seconds.
LaVerne's Chancise Watkins set a new stadium record with a time of :20.99 to lead the eight finalists into Saturday's 200-meter dash final.
In the pair of relay preliminaries, Greenville set a new stadium mark with a time of 40.46 seconds in the 4x100. In the 4x400, it was Mount Union who broke the facility record in 3:09.94. They will close out the championship on Saturday afternoon.
Friday's schedule of events will begin at 1 p.m. with the conclusion of the decathlon.
Thursday ResultsNCAA championships page
