The Ohio State men's track and field team took first place at the All-Ohio Track and Field Championships in Cincinnati last weekend. After finishing third behind Cincinnati and Akron last year, the Buckeyes came out on top with 179 points.
"We're really learning how to get points across the board in scored meets like this one," said coach Robert Gary.
Senior sprinter Anthony Cole was a standout, winning the 100-meter dash (10.50 seconds) and finishing third in the 200 (21.49).
"We really wanted to win this meet," Cole said. "We kind of had a target on our back. Because we're Ohio State, some of the teams have a personal vendetta against us and feel like they have something to prove."
Other sprinters performed well, including sophomore Jonathan Francois who won the 110-meter hurdles and junior Matt Comer who took second in the 400 (47.42). He finished behind Cincinnati's Antione Drakeford (46.52).
"I didn't run what I was capable of," Comer said. "I didn't execute how I could have. I ran a lot faster in the 1,600-meter relay. If I would have run that fast in the open, I would have beat him."
Comer has been competing in the 1,600 relay for the last two years, along with junior Elon Simms and sophomores Stephen Robinson and Brandon Woodard.
"We're all best friends; they're the guys I train with everyday." Comer said. "We do homework together or all go out. We're together all the time."
The relay hopes to qualify for the NCAA regionals.
"We just missed qualifying at the meet this past weekend," Comer said. "We really want to win the event and eventually get a bid to nationals."
The relay team finished second behind Ashland (3 minutes, 10.31 seconds) with a time of 3:10.96.
In distance events, freshman Adam Green took first place in the 5,000-meter run (14:38.01) and sophomore Chad Balyo finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
"I thought the meet went very well," Gary said. "It's nice to see the progress that we've made."
Up next The Buckeyes will be competing in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, Friday and Saturday.
"It's a pretty high profile meet," Cole said. "A lot of really good teams are going to be there. I want us to get out there and beat a lot of them and establish ourselves more."
Gary said he hopes that the team will show improvement from its performance at the meet last year.
"We didn't have much of a presence last year," he said. "We just want to try and have a real presence with the relays. We're bringing a lot of our regional qualifying guys. I feel like we can go to this meet and really perform."
Megan Savage can be reached at savage.119@osu.edu.
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