ALLIANCE, Ohio-- The 2018 men's track and field season opened on Saturday at the Mount Union Toy Drive Invitational. It was an unscored meet but the Big Red posted 11, top-10 performances at the meet.
In the weight throw, Austin McManus logged a PR in with a throw of 41'10.75". That is the third-best performance in Denison indoor track and field history. McManus placed 10th overall. Sophomore Grant Balogh checked in with the eighth-best performance in program history after a distance of 33'7.25".
In the 60 meter hurdles, James Dixie placed 10th in 9.22 seconds and Britton Beinfang was right behind in 11th at 9.24 seconds. That ranks third and fourth on Denison's top-10 in the 60-meter hurdles.
Another rookie nearly cracked Denison's top-10 list in the 60-meter dash as Otto Laakonen crossed the finish line in 7.53 seconds to place 19th overall. That is the 11th best time at Denison.
In the 3,000 meters, Rhys Fitschen-Brown took fourth place after a time of 9:53.80.
The Big Red's 4x400 relay team of Laakonen, Millan Henegar, Sam Bloodworth, and Jack Ruddy took third in 3:33.56. Ruddy also posted a 10th place finish in the 400-meter dash (53.46) and a 15th place showing in the 200-meter dash (24.03). Following Ruddy in the 200 was Jake Coplin (17th – 24.24) and Laakonen (19th – 24.38).
Five Denison athletes competed in the long jump. The group was led by Dixie who covered 20'9.75" to place fourth. Coplin took sixth (20'5.75") while places 16, 18 and 21 were held down by Beinfang (18'1.75"), Wayne Chen (18'0.25") and Alex Chin (15'2").
Ryan Fleming and Baron Becker both cleared 6'0" in the high jump. After ties were broken, Fleming placed sixth and Becker took eighth. In the 800 meter run, Bloodworth placed third in 2:04.38 and Henegar were right behind in fourth with a time of 2:06.84.
In the shot put, Porter Fitzgerald logged a 24th place finish with a heave of 30'5.75".
Denison's next meet will take place on January 19, 2019, when they travel to the Carnegie Mellon Invitational at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
