GAMBIER, Ohio (February 24, 2024) – After finishing day one of the North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Indoor Track & Field Championships in first place for the second time in three years, the Denison University Big Red dropped four spots this time around and finished in fifth place with 87 points at the end of day two.

The top-five teams were separated by just 43 points, led by Wittenberg University (130 points) in first place, Wabash College (114 points) in second, Oberlin College (103 points) in third and the College of Wooster (90 points) in fourth, just three points in front of the Big Red. With the win, Wittenberg snaps Wabash's streak of four-straight indoor championships and wins its first such championship since 1997.

To begin day two on Saturday, Denison fell to second place behind Wittenberg (45-37) after not competing in the high jump, but then Chris Slater's first-career NCAC title in the weight throw (16.54 meters) helped the Big Red pull to within four points of the Tigers (53-49). After finishing second in both the weight throw and the shot put last year, Slater again earned all-conference honors in both events this year with a third-place finish in the shot put on Friday, accounting for two of Denison's three all-conference performance this year.

Also in the weight throw, Owen Mathes was seventh with a personal record of 13.95 meters.

In the pole vault, Wittenberg had three of the top-five and four of the top-seven finishers to open up a 20-point lead (72-52) over the Big Red, which is where the score remained heading into the track events. For Denison in the pole vault, Jacob Brown was sixth at 4.10 meters.

Then in the first track event, Denison picked up the win with a school record time of 1:30.39 by Malik Holley, Jaylin Epps, Pierce Patterson and Jack Meyerowitz in the 4x200 meter relay. The previous school record was 1:31.00 set by Holley, Jairus Branch, Travis Dunson and Charlie Webb at the 2022 NCAC Indoor Championships.

That cut Denison's deficit to 15 points (77-62), and that is where it remained as the Big Red missed an opportunity to cut into Wittenberg's lead even more in the one mile run as Oliver DiCerbo (4:26.59) was ninth and Leo Wisnefski (4:32.30) was 11th.

The Big Red got to within 10 points of the lead (77-67) after Brown added five points with a fourth-place finish in the 60 meter hurdles after running a time of 8.61 seconds. Brown would finish the meet by scoring in four different events, including a conference title in the heptathlon, a fourth-place finish in the 60 meter hurdles, and a pair of sixth-place finishes in the pole vault and the long jump.

10 points is the closest Denison would get to taking back the lead, however, as Wittenberg (92 points) had both the winner and the fourth-place finisher in the 400 meter dash while Oberlin (80 points) had the other three top-five finishers to surpass the Big Red (70 points) for second place. Pierce Patterson (51.27) was sixth, meanwhile, for Denison in the 400.

Epps was fourth with a time of 6.96 seconds in the 60 meter dash, but Wittenberg swept the fifth, sixth and seventh-place positions to become the first team to get over the 100-point margin (101 points).

Denison then dropped to fourth place after not having anyone compete in the 800 meter run while Wabash took the top-two spots and moved up to second place, 17 points (108-91) behind Wittenberg.

In the 200 meter dash, Holley finished fourth with a time of 22.67 seconds while Epps was seventh at 22.88 seconds as Denison was the only school with two scorers in the event.

Wooster finished second in the 3,000 meter run and surpassed Denison for fourth place in the team standings as Worth Hinshaw (9:07.00) and Will Cunningham (9:07.81) finished back-to-back in 13th and 14th place.

In the final event, Holley, Patterson, Meyerowitz and Jason Rideout were fourth in the 4x400 meter relay at 3:29.28.
 
NCAC CHAMPIONSHIPS:

• Chris Slater – weight throw – 16.54 meters (54-03.25)
• 4x200 Meter Relay team – 1:30.39 (Malik Holley, Jaylin Epps, Pierce Patterson, Jack Meyerowitz)

 
All-NCAC PERFORMANCES (TOP-3):

• Chris Slater – first place in the weight throw – 16.54 meters (54-03.25)
• 4x200 Meter Relay team – first place – 1:30.39 (Malik Holley, Jaylin Epps, Pierce Patterson, Jack Meyerowitz)

 
OTHER POINT SCORERS (TOP-8):

• Jacob Brown – fourth place in the 60 meter hurdles – 8.61 seconds
• Jaylin Epps – fourth place in the 60 meter dash – 6.96 seconds
• Malik Holley – fourth place in the 200 meter dash – 22.67 seconds
• 4x400 Meter Relay team – fourth place – 3:29.28 (Malik Holley, Pierce Patterson, Jack Meyerowitz, Jason Rideout)
• Jacob Brown – sixth place in the pole vault – 4.10 meters (13-05.25)
• Pierce Patterson – sixth place in the 400 meter dash – 51.27 seconds
• Owen Mathes – seventh place in the weight throw – 13.95 meters (45-09.25)
• Jaylin Epps – seventh place in the 200 meter dash – 22.88 seconds

 
Final Results