The University of Lynchburg men and Washington & Lee women won team titles when Eastern Mennonite University played host to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship track meet last weekend in Harrisonburg. The meet was held Friday and Saturday.
The Roanoke College men finished third in the competition and had some outstanding performances. Senior Brady Fowler won the 200m and the Maroons recorded two more runner-up finishes for their best showing in 18 years. Roanoke totaled 94 points for the team’s best finish at the ODAC outdoor championship meet since 2007. Lynchburg racked up 273 points to claim the team crown, while Washington and Lee finished second at 113.
Fowler picked up his second career win in the outdoor 200m and his ninth overall event title at a conference championship, clocking in at 21.31 second. Amari Carter logged a time of 10.51 seconds to claim second place and an All-ODAC award in the 100m.
Both Roanoke relay teams produced all-conference performances. The 4×100 quartet of Carter, Drew Bitzer, Fowler and Bryson Hill took second place in 40.99 seconds. The Maroons finished third in the 4×400 relay with Hill, Brandon Heffinger, Elias Ammon and Lorenzo Camobreco recording a time of 3:21.49.
Daniel Graham secured all-conference laurels in the 110m hurdles, placing third in 15.55 seconds. In the 800m, Ammon ran a season-best time of 1:52.47, the second-fastest in program history, to place third and pick up an All-ODAC citation.
Lorenzo Camobreco garnered an All-ODAC designation in the 400m, coming in third at 48.43 seconds. Hill, a Salem High grad, scored for the Maroons with an eighth-place mark of 50.55.
On the opening day, Matt Garis took second in the 10,000 meters and Jim Sarsfield was second in the hammer throw.
In the women’s meet Ophelia Ladner broke her own school record while winning the 400m hurdles and the 4×400 relay also took first as the Roanoke too fourth with 111 points. Champion W&L had 206 followed by Lyncbhurg at 165 and Bridgewater with 116.
Ladner shaved over a full second off of her own Roanoke record in the 400m hurdles, running a race-winning time of 1:01.93. That mark set a new ODAC championship meet record, and it currently ranks ninth in NCAA Division III. Ladner was also part of the victorious 4×400 relay squad, joining forces with Mae Kaufman, Maryrose Molina-Shuman and Lindsey Hobin to cross the tape first in 3:55.53.
Claudia Disbrow finished as the runner-up in the javelin, earning All-ODAC honors with a mark of 36.62m. Hobin placed second in the 200m, collecting an all-conference citation with a time of 25.29 seconds.
Roanoke’s 4×100 relay team of Hinckley, Kaufman, Hobin and Nalonda Henderson garnered All-ODAC laurels with a third-place finish in 47.52 seconds. The Maroons went 3-4-5 in both the 100m hurdles and the 400m. In the former event, Olivia Viers picked up an all-conference honor with a third-place mark of 14.93 seconds while Rebecca Carr (15.07) and Cammi Winston (15.43) came in fourth and fifth.
Molina-Shuman earned all-conference laurels with a third-place time of 58.78 seconds in the 400m. Henderson grabbed an All-ODAC award in the 100m, coming in third in 12.35 seconds. Sarah Fuchs was runnerup in the hammer throw.
This Friday Roanoke is slated to complete in the Hill City Twilight meet at the University of Lynchburg.
