Contact: Clark Teuscher, Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Results
Team Scores
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Feb. 29, 2020) - Traveling a familiar path to the top of the leaderboard, the North Central College men's track and field team continued its remarkable run of dominance in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Indoor Championship Friday and Saturday, using superior depth to lift the first-place trophy for the 19th time in the 20-year history of the meet at Illinois Wesleyan University's Shirk Center.
The Cardinals totaled 204 points to finish well clear of runner-up Millikin University's total of 108. Wheaton College placed third (101), followed by Augustana College (73.50), Carthage College (72), Carroll University (52), Illinois Wesleyan University (27), North Park University (18) and Elmhurst College (7.50). North Central won six individual conference titles and placed either first or second in 10 of the 17 contested events.
The Cardinals collected the top five individual finishes in the mile run to score 33 points in that event alone.
Gabe Pommier placed first in four minutes, 15.03 seconds, followed by
Brendon Sebastian (4:17.51),
Nick Licari (4:18.25),
Jonah Penningroth (4:20.36) and
Julian Higueros (4:21.47). North Central experienced similar success in the pole vault, as
Izaiah Webb cleared 15 feet, 3.50 inches to earn North Central's 18th title in the event in 20 years. Teammates
Gavin Carr and
Vaughn Hobart each cleared 14'3.50" to place third and fourth, respectively, while
Michael Shuff came in fifth and
Jason England sixth, both clearing 13'9.75".
Yet another scoring boost came in the 5,000-meter run as
Kyle Bell crossed the finish line second (15:00.09) and was followed in succession by
Thomas Rohr (15:09.16),
Zach Chapman (15:10.56),
Matt Jett (15:13.30) and
Bjorn Shroda (15:18.64).
North Central won both relay events, as Pommier,
Campbell Koch,
Gavin Cernek and
Logan Schaefer prevailed in the distance medley relay (10:17.90) and Cernek teamed with
Michael Stanley,
Maceo Findlay and
Erik Musgrave to win the 4-by-400-meter relay (3:21.01). Stanley and Cernek also placed first (49.25) and second (50.01) in the 400-meter dash.
Matt Osmulski delivered the Cardinals' sixth individual title in the 3,000-meter run in the past seven seasons, clocking a time of 8:31.85. Osmulski is now a two-time CCIW indoor champion, having also won the 5,000 in 2018.
Keyon Wolber placed second by the closest of margins in the 60-meter hurdles, though his time of 8.48 establishes a new North Central freshman record. Sebastian also placed second in the 800-meter run (1:57.56), as did Webb in the triple jump (46'1.25"). Other third-place points came from Stanley in the 200-meter dash (22.34), Musgrave in the 60-meter hurdles (8.72),
Kendall Johnson in the triple jump (45'3") and
Nick Janca in the high jump (6'7").
The Cardinals have a final week to establish qualifying marks for the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship, to be held Mar. 13-14 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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