DELAWARE, Ohio – Denison men's track and field landed nine, top-five finishes on Saturday afternoon as they placed fourth overall at the 2019 Marv Frye Invitational held at Ohio Wesleyan University. Totaling 78 team points for the weekend, the Big Red edged out fifth-place Albion by two points (76) and fell short of Thomas More in third place with 112 points. Case Western garnered the team title with 121 points.
The weekend was headlined by a pair of first place finishes in the field events, led by freshman Esteban Sainz winning the javelin event with a throw of 160'8" (48.97 meters), the first recorded throw of his collegiate career. The winning mark also launched him into Denison's top-10 list of personal records where he currently ranks eighth overall. Ryan Fleming followed with a third-place finish on a toss of 136'9" (41.70 meters).
Also earning an individual victory was Bryce Stricker in the hammer throw where the junior reached a first-place distance of 159'7" (48.66 meters). Austin McManus landed in seventh place at 138'9" (42.31 meters), while Grant Balogh finished 11th overall with a PR distance of 123'3" (37.58 meters).
The Stricker/McManus combo also competed in the shot put and discus events where Stricker led the charge in the shot put in ninth place on a distance of 40'7.50" (12.38 meters) and McManus followed in 10th at 37'9.25" (11.51 meters). In the discus, McManus finished in 14th (114'11") and Stricker placed 17th (97'4").
Collecting top-10 finishes the rest of the way in the field events, Fleming led DU in the high jump on a leap of 6'2" (1.88 meters) to place second. James Dixie placed fourth in the triple jump at 41'4.25" (12.60 meters) and Alex Chin finished sixth overall in the long jump (19'11.75"). Blake Brown rounded out the field performances with an eighth-place finish in the pole vault at 10' (3.05 meters).
On the track, Jack Ruddy and Adam Cromwell picked up a pair of second-place finishes with Ruddy taking second in the 400-meter hurdles after clocking in at 57.59 and Cromwell doing the same in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:41.12.
Jack Marchetti followed in the 5k at 15:57.28 in eighth place, while Clayton Watters landed in 16th (16:45.76) and Keanan Ginell placed 20th (17:14.57).
In the 110 meter hurdles, Dixie logged a fifth-place finish at 17:03. Niall Clancey also landed in fifth in the 800-meter run where he clocked in at 1:57.48. Ben Foster followed in sixth at 1:57.59. Clancey and Foster then joined Ruddy and Sam Bloodworth in the 4X400 meter relay to finish in sixth at 3:30.17.
The Big Red will return to action on Wednesday, April 10 when they host the College of Wooster for a traditional dual meet at 2 p.m. in Piper Stadium.
