GRANVILLE, Ohio – Denison men's track & field earned 10 finishes in the top-three to place third overall at the Kenyon Spring Invitational on Saturday afternoon in Gambier. The Big Red also competed in the Kentucky Open held at the University of Kentucky in Lexington where DU landed a pair of top-10 finishes.
At Kenyon, the Big Red tallied 119 team points to place third overall and finished six points behind Mount Vernon Nazarene in second place (125). Wooster won the invite with 233 team points.
Denison collected a pair of first-place finishes in Gambier, led by junior James Dixie who won the javelin event with a throw of 152' (46.34 meters). Zackary Johnston followed in fourth at 113'4". Dixie also competed in the discus where he placed eighth overall on a launch of 79'2" (24.15 meters). Austin McManus led DU in the event with a 117'2" (35.73 meters) to place fourth. Dixie closed out his field events in the pole vault on a third-place finish at 9'5.75" (2.89 meters).
In the shot put McManus placed third overall on a throw of 37'6.50" (11.44 meters). He also placed third in the hammer throw at 126'11" (38.69 meters). Sophomore Grant Balogh placed second overall in the event with a new personal record mark of 130' (39.63 meters). Denison also competed in the hammer throw at UK where Bryce Stricker placed seventh overall after reaching a distance of 156'6" (47.70 meters).
DU earned second and third place in the long jump at Kenyon with Jake Coplin taking second on a leap of 20'7.25" (6.28 meters) and Alex Chin coming in third at 20'1" (6.12 meters).
Denison rounded out the field events at Kentucky with freshman Esteban Sainz placing sixth overall in the javelin (162'7" – 49.57 meters) and Ryan Fleming taking 13th in the high jump (6' – 1.83 meters).
On the track, freshman Seven Lindsey headlined the Big Red in the sprints after placing first overall in the 100-meter dash at 11.71 and fourth in the 200-meter dash at 23.57. Justin Wolfe followed in the 200 at 25.21 in 10th place.
In the 400-meter dash, freshman Sam Bloodworth took fourth overall on a final time of 52.71 while Wolfe landed in seventh at 57.10. Wolfe and Bloodworth also teamed up with Lindsey and Chin in the 4X100 meter relay as they placed fourth overall after crossing the finish line at 44.71.
In the distance events, Rhys Fitschen-Brown led DU in the 3,000-meter steeplechase where the junior placed second overall on a new PR time of 10:16.18.
In the 1,500-meter run, Millan Henegar earned another top-three finish for Denison as he placed third overall after clocking in at 4:19.88. Johnston placed ninth overall at 4:39.18.
The Big Red also landed a pair in the top-10 in the 5,000-meter run with Kenny Connelly coming in fourth place at 16:59.14 and Jacob Rains taking eighth place at 17:51.96.
DU closed out the Kenyon Invite in the 4X400-meter run where the group of Bloodworth, Henegar, Dixie, and Wolfe finished in fifth place at 3:40.82.
Denison will return to action next Friday, April 26 when they host the Big Red Invitational at Piper Stadium in Granville.
