Hilary Coady

The College of Wooster's Hilary Coady raised her school record by nearly 200 points during Sunday's pentathlon portion of the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, hosted by Ohio Wesleyan University, and more impressive, her 3581 total was the third-highest recorded score across NCAA Div. III this season. Coady's runner-up finish in the NCAC pentathlon was complemented by teammate Carolyn Webster, who took fourth-place (2965 points).

Coady, whose previous best of 3387 came at the All-Ohio Championships on Feb. 7, started the competition well with a season-best 9.32 in the 60-meter hurdles, then she led the field in back-to-back events, clearing 5 feet, 3.25 inches in the high jump and heaving the shot put 35 feet, 10.75 inches.

That shot put mark was a career high for the senior standout, and Coady followed with another in the long jump of 17 feet, 0.5 inches – more than a foot better than her mark in that event from three weeks ago. She closed the event with a third event victory, covering the 800 meters in 2:22.74, yet another season best.

Coady's 3581 points placed her just below rival Aedin Brennan of Denison University, as the latter tallied the second-best score in the nation at 3638. Noteworthy, the current Div. III leader also hails from an Ohio-based school – Baldwin Wallace University's Melanie Winters (3651).

Webster, a first-year, scored similarly to her only previous pentathlon experience (2989 points), despite an uncharacteristic mark in her marquee event. After going 5 feet, 2.25 inches in the high jump – 3.75 inches off of her school record – she bounced back with career highs in both the shot put (29 feet, 10.25 inches) and the long jump (17 feet, 4.25 inches). On the track, she nearly went under 10 seconds in the 60 hurdles (10.03) and 2:52.72 in the 800 meters.

Also competing for the Fighting Scots was Conor Maley in the two-day NCAC heptathlon, and he finished just shy of scoring some team points in the conference meet via a ninth-place showing (3460). Among his highlights were a 7.83 sprint in the 60 and a 3:05.08 run in the 1000 meters as well as reaching 18 feet, 2.5 inches in the long jump.

The Wooster multi-event trio will join the rest of their teammates at the NCAC Championships this coming weekend, which will take place on the campus of Kenyon College.