FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302

Results

KENOSHA, Wis. (Feb. 28, 2015) - Winning five events and piling up points in its signature events, the North Central College men's track and field team found little resistance in its pursuit of a 15th straight College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Indoor Championship on Friday and Saturday, winning by a comfortable margin to retain the conference title it has owned exclusively in this year's meet at Carthage.

The third-ranked Cardinals piled up 215.50 points to improve to a perfect 15-0 in CCIW Indoor Championships since the event's inception in 2001. 12th-ranked Augustana College came in second with 142.50, followed by Carthage College (97.50), Wheaton College (79), Illinois Wesleyan University (41), Millikin University (39), Elmhurst College (27) and North Park University (20.50).

North Central won all of the individual distance events, the first of which was the 5,000-meter run on Friday as Zach Plank took the win in 14 minutes, 43.36 seconds. The Cardinals took four of the top five places in the race, as Ken Hoffman finished third (15:02.17), TIm Vazquez placed fourth (15:04.32) and Kevin McMahon came in fifth (15:22.74). Matt Muth followed on Saturday by winning the individual title in the mile run for the second time in three years, hitting the finish line in 4:17.29. Hoffman placed third as North Central put five runners in the top seven.

Travis Morrison added a first-place effort in the 3,000-meter run on Saturday, winning in a personal-best time of 8:21.11. Aron Sebhat was a close second in 8:21.30, while Ben Dickshinski was fourth (8:29.72), Brent Gaither was sixth (8:36.37) and Steve Sismelich was seventh (8:46.53). 

The Cardinals also claimed two individual field-event championships, including the 13th pole vault title in the 15-year history of the meet. Luke Winder cleared 17 feet, 3/4 inch to secure the win, while Spencer Lahaye tied for second and Nick Foley finished fourth, each clearing 14'11 1/2", and Michael Koehne placed fifth (13'11 3/4"). North Central swept the top three places in the high jump, as Femi Oyewole tied a personal best with a clearance of 6'9" to win the title and Adam Poklop and Kyle Olesen placed second and third, respectively, with identical clearances of 6'5".

North Central placed second in both relay events. Juliano Lodi, Derek Nelson, Tyler McQuality and A.J. Laskowske were runners-up in the distance medley relay on Friday (10:17.75), while Daniel Spaccapaniccia, Richard Ruske, Adam Lundquist and Abraham Oshipitan were clocked in 3:24.53 in the 4-by-400-merer relay on Saturday. Lundquist also placed second in the 55-meter hurdles (7.75), as did Adam Weidner in the shot put (an indoor personal-best 53'5 3/4") and Ruske in the 800-meter run (a season-best 1:55.37). Jake Runnion and Muth followed Ruske across the line in fourth (1:57.86) and fifth (1:58.34), respectively. Spaccapaniccia finished third in the 400-meter dash (50.26) and Mark Vear did the same in the heptathlon (4,042).

The Cardinals' coaching staff was voted the CCIW Coaching Staff of the Year.

North Central travels to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Last Chance Qualifier next Saturday for its final competition before the NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships. Action is set to get under way at 10:30 a.m.