The men’s track and field team won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Indoor title for the 17th consecutive time on March 2. LC earned 154 points, 36 more than second-place Bridgewater College.
The 28th championship in program history was highlighted by a slew of individual event winners, award winners, and career bests. Coach Zach Haupt was named Coach of the Meet for the first time.
The day started off well for the Hornets as three throwers took spots in the top four, earning 22 points overall in just the weight throw. Greg Wilson (at lelft) finally got his gold medal in the event after being on the podium the past two years. His new career-best of 56’11.25″, which is the second-best in school history and is now the ODAC Championship meet record, was eight feet longer than Spencer Latham‘s runner-up throw of 48’8.75″. Hunter Bailey was fourth at 44’10.25″.
The shot put competition continued the dominance of the LC throwers. Wilson won the shot put after two straight indoor runner-ups. He won with a new PR (52’5.5″) with Latham taking second (46’4.75″). Lesley Waddy gave Lynchburg a total of 20 points in the event with a fifth-place toss of 41’11.25″.
The throwers would have finished fifth in the overall team competition with 42 total points.
LC dominated all of the field events, winning the long jump and pole vault. Evan Truman won the long jump at 22’5″, just ahead of teammate Zachary Kezar, who finished second with a distance of 22’4.25″. Brian O’Dea had the highest clearance in the pole vault, winning his first individual title at 14’1.25″. Fellow Hornet Daniel Shannon took six points and the bronze at 13’5.25″. Lynchburg also gained points in the high jump and the triple jump. Tristan Boysaw finished second in the triple jump at 45’1.75″ and also had a fifth-place finish in the high jump. Corey Devore took third in the event, clearing a height of 6’3.25″.
In the track events, Rachad Davis continued his dominance of the 60-meter hurdles, winning the event for the fourth year in a row. He tied his personal best in the prelims, and set a new best in the finals with a time of 8.33.
Anthony McBride joined in on the party of setting career bests, taking second in the mile at 4:23.03, less than four-tenths behind the winner. In his last race of the meet, McBride added another silver medal and eight more points to the total, finishing the 3000 meter race in 8:47.90.
While Tom Sippie did not set a new career best in the 400 meter dash, he did win the event for the second-straight year, with a season best of 49.11. Boysaw finished fourth and Davis took fifth in the dash. Sippie later finished with the silver in the 200 meter dash, crossing the line in a season best 22.25.
In the final event of the meet, the 4×400 meter relay team finished in style. Davis, Boysaw, Curtis Whitlow, and Sippie combined for a season best of 3:23.97. Sippie crossed the line in one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Washington & Lee’s Alexander Tallman to give the final ten points to the Hornets.
The national championship meet is scheduled for March 14-15 in Nebraska.