Ohio men shine in final home meet

Track & Field: Ohio men shine in final home meet

’Cats save the best for last, win 13 events with high emotions
Jason Fazzone / Assistant Sports Editor / jf104004@ohiou.edu

With arms draped over each other’s shoulders, members of the Ohio men’s track and field team took one last victory lap around Goldsberry Track, bowing collectively when they reached the finish line.

Saturday’s Ohio Open was the last regular season home meet for the team, and the emotions were high.

“Being the last time at home, it pulls on you pretty hard,” coach Clay Calkins said.

The Bobcat men appeared to save the best for last, winning 13 events and providing a storybook ending by taking first place in the 4x400-meter relay, the final race of the day.

“It was important to us,” Dan Bailey, who was part of that relay team, said. “It was the last men’s relay team at Ohio University to compete at a home meet, and ending it on top — it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Scott Mayle won three individual events — the 100-meter dash, the high jump and the long jump — and the senior anchored the 4x100-meter relay team that finished first.

Fellow senior Eric Bildstein won three events as well, taking the discus, hammer throw and javelin competitions. Bildstein’s mark of 55.97 meters in the hammer throw qualified him for NCAA regionals.

Bildstein was one of three Bobcats to meet the regional provisional mark Saturday. Women’s team members Chelsea Stephan qualified in the javelin with a throw of 44.71 meters, and Bahiyjuai Allen made the mark in the shot put with a throw of 14.50 meters.

“Everybody did better than expected today,” Calkins said. “We had three regional qualifiers in the throws today, which is good to see. Any time you hit those kinds of marks, you know you’re doing the right things.”

Five other members of the men’s team won their respective individual events, including Bailey’s victory in the triple jump, Curtis Leuenberger’s win in the 200-meter run and Austin Schiele’s first place finish in the 1,500-meter run.