(Story courtesy of Centre College)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Centre College won its second consecutive SCAC Men's Track & Field Championship Saturday afternoon as the Colonels narrowly held off Birmingham-Southern College for the championship by a score of 168.5 to 164. Official Website | Day Two Results
The Colonels finished the meet with 168.5 points. Birmingham Southern finished second with 164 points. Rhodes, Trinity and Colorado College rounded out the top five.
In the men's discus, junior Michael Bozarth placed second with a throw of 40.44 meters. Junior Marc Speed finished seventh with a throw of 36 meters flat. Freshman Ryan Arey finished eighth with a distance of 35.92 meters.
Senior Jacob Carter finished fifth with a distance of 38.50 meters. The four points Carter earned brought his total for the meet to 26, making him the high scorer of the meet and earning him the SCAC Athlete of the Meet honors as a result. It is the first time an athlete from Centre, male or female, has won this award.
The second individual conference championship was turned in by senior Willie Polio who took the 5K with a time of 15:37.22. Sophomore John Kieffer also picked up all-conference honors in the 5K with a time of 15:55.87.
The 16 points picked up by Polio and Kieffer were crucial as the 5K was one of the last events of the meet. In other distance events, senior Graham Campbell finished fifth in both the 1500m and the 800m, and he was joined in the 800m scoring column by freshman Jesse Thompson, who took seventh place with a time of 1:59.97.
The 4x400 relay team of Campbell, sophomores Cesar Hernandez and Nick Niehaus, and senior Marcus Niemann finished second with a time of 3:27.69 in another clutch performance. All four runners also scored in multiple individual events. Niehaus finished second in the 110m hurdles, third in the 400m hurdles and seventh in the high jump.
Hernandez finished fourth in the 400m and seventh in the 200m. Niemann finished seventh in the 100m. Hernandez, Niemann and Niehaus combined with junior Monte Scotton to take sixth in the 4x100 relay with a time of 44.51. Sophomore Michael Orr, who earned all-conference honors in the pole vault on Friday, finished seventh in the 400m hurdles with a time of 59.10.
The NCAA Championships will begin on May 24 in Claremont, Calif. The top 21 male performers in each event will qualify for the NCAA meet.
