Scots Win Individual Title, Collect Four All-NCAC Certificates, Set Three Records on Day One of NCAC Championships
Webster wins high jump, Margida runner-up in shot put
An individual title, a runner-up finish, four all-conference certificates, and three school records headlined The College of Wooster's first day of competition at the North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships held at Kenyon College's Barrett A. Toan Track in Gambier, Ohio.
Wooster sits in fourth-place on the women's side (36.5 points) and in fifth-place in the men's standings (16 points) after Friday's portion of the schedule. National power Wabash College leads the men's field with 57 points, with Ohio Wesleyan University (43 points), and Allegheny College (23 points) rounding out the top three. On the women's side Ohio Wesleyan (62 points) holds a tight lead over Oberlin College (58.5 points), while Denison University (46 points) sits in third.
First-year sensation Carolyn Webster had a strong debut at the conference meet, winning the high jump in a jump off over Denison's Hannah Hall, DePauw University's Ashley Hash, and Wittenberg University's Rebeccah Delp. The quartet all cleared 5 feet, 3 inches prior to Webster clearing 5 feet, 5 inches in the jump off.
With the first-place finish, Webster is the College's first freshmen to win a women's individual NCAC indoor title since Michelle Poole won the 800 meters at the 1994 championships.
Matt Margida was equally impressive with a career-best heave of 50 feet, 0.5 inches in the shot put to earn an all-conference certificate via a second-place finish. The all-conference laurel marked Margida's fourth (two indoor, two outdoor), while the second-place finish matched his finish from the 2014 indoor conference meet.
Margida's previous personal-best was 48 feet, 10 inches set at the 2015 Denison Big Red Invitational during the outdoor portion of the season.
Wooster's other all-conference certificates came during the distance medley relay with the Scots earning all-NCAC laurels in both the men's and women's race in the same year for the first time since 2013.
On the men's side a quartet of first-years in Jacob Denbeaux, Cullen King, Simon Weyer, and Brian Lief teamed up to turn in a school-record, and third-place, time of 10:30.35, topping the 3-year-old program record of 10:32.63. The Scots held off the Big Red as Denison's quartet was just .19 seconds behind Wooster.
In the women's race, Emani Kelley, Lissette Torres, Julia Higgins, and Mackenzie Kellar crossed third at 12:59.59, nearly 9 ticks ahead of fourth-place Oberlin.
Wooster's sprinters set a pair of program records in the preliminary heats ahead of tomorrow's finals session.
Senior Paris Nahas lowered her program-best time in the 200 meters down to 25.87, to qualify third for tomorrow's finals. Also of note, Nahas had the top preliminary time (58.97) in the 400 meters.
On the men's side, senior Ben Kingstone crossed at 7.17 seconds in the 60-meter dash, besting Robert Flagg's old record-time of 7.21 seconds. Kingstone qualified eighth for the finals heat.
Other Friday scoring performances were turned in by Elizabeth Obi, who was sixth in the triple jump (33 feet, 10 inches), and tied for sixth in the high jump (4 feet, 11 inches); Brigid O'Hara, who was seventh in the triple jump (33 feet, 2 inches); and Christian Golden, who turned in a seventh-place performance of 40 feet, 6 inches in the triple jump.
Also of note, Taryn Szalay qualified eighth in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries, with a clip of 9.77 seconds.
The NCAC Championships continue on Saturday.