MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Returning to a location the Scots are familiar with and have competed at this season, the Alma College track and field team compete in the Central Michigan University Chippewa Invite on Saturday, February 7th. The Scots saw strong showings from the team including best marks coming from the younger members.
Onction Zape saw one of his best all-around performances of the season so far collecting a win and runner-up finish. Zape was the top finisher in the men's 200 meters with a time of 22.77 just barely off his career best. Zape also added a runner-up finish in the 60-meter race, finishing with a time of 7.08, two-hundredths off from his best. Austin Thompson was just behind Zape with a time of 7.18, finishing in third. Also collecting a top of the podium finish was Aiden Aldrich, scoring the top spot in the 400-meter run. Aldrich finished with a time of 51.94. Teammate Phillip Banner finished fourth in the event with a time of 53.85. Doubling the distance, freshman Elliot Buchan finished third in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:08.55, Alma's best finisher. Switching to field events, Alma went two-three in the high jump as Ethan Wickham fished with a personal-best mark of 1.80 meters and Brady Crake was a position behind with a mark of 1.65 meters. In the pole vault, Nickolas Savoie rose to second with a clear of 3.95 meters. Leland Edelyn finished two positions behind in fourth with a career-best mark of 3.80 meters. Nick Mikesell finished on third for the long jump, floating to a mark of 6.10 meters and was crowned the champion of the triple jump with a personal-best mark of 12.19 meters. Teammates Ed Markarian and Ethan Wickham finished in second and third with marks of 12.18 and 11.20 meters, respectively. Jerrold Atwell came in as Alma's highest finisher in the shot put with a throw of 13.17 meters. In the weight throw, Callen Hagey threw a career-best 14.90 meters, finishing fourth for his record day. The 4x400 meter relay team of Aldrich, Banner, Crake and Edelyn saw a season-best time of 3:39.06 to finish second, while the distance medley relay team of Ethan Shroat, Aldrich, Buchan and Noah Murphy finished third with a time of 11:35.77.
Flipping to the women's side of the competition, Sophia Sanford scored a top five finish in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:05.25. Lauren Brawt finished fourth in the 800-meter run with a personal best time of 2:23.27, shaving off a couple seconds. Sophie Dech scored Alma a top spot finish as she ran a career best time of 11:00.30 in the 3K run ahead of teammates Melanie Werner and Erica Slocum who finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Looking at the field events, Helena Snyder finished fifth in the high jump with a mark of 1.57 meters, following her back-to-back weeks of school record jumps. Brawt set a personal best in the high jump clearing a mark of 1.47 meters for sixth as well. Tess Gasiciel came in as Alma's top finish in the long jump competition with a leap of 4.87 meters, finishing fifth overall. Moving to the throws, Julia Haggart was Alma's best mark in the weight throw, reaching a personal best of 12.21 meters, finishing fifth in the field. Both relays for the Scots on the women's side finished second on the day with the Distance Medley Relay team of Calla Armstrong, Sanford, Stella Lampert and Werner running a time of 14:10.94 and the 4x400 meter team of Brawt, Jordan Fox, Kennedi Wahmhoff and Snyder completing with a season best time of 4:18.41.
Alm now has several days to prepare for the WHAC vs MIAA Challenge hosted by Aquinas College on Friday, February 13th in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Meet time is set to begin at 5:00 PM.
