ADA, Ohio – Justin Meredith, Nick Bertoia and Jephte Jean-Claude combined for 70 points as Albion College finished second out of 10 teams assembled for the Polar Bear Invitational.
Albion finished with 117 ½ points, 44 behind Ohio Northern University's total.
Meredith shaved .17 off his season best time in winning the 100 meters in 10.64 seconds. According to the Track & Field Results Reporting System, only one Division III athlete, Jamal Watkins of Birmingham Southern, has a faster time in the event this season.
Meredith shaved nearly a ½ second off his season-best time when he won the 200 in an Ohio Northern stadium record time of 21.54 seconds. According to TFRRS, that's ninth best in D-III so far this season.
Jean-Claude set personal records to score first place points in the 110 hurdles (15.22) and triple jump (45' 1 ½").
Meredith and Jean-Claude nearly missed first place in the 4x100 relay. Joined by Zachary Osborne and Sean Thomas, the Britons completed the race in 43.26. It was three hundredths of a second behind Heidelberg University.
Bertoia was the runner-up in the 400, fourth in the javelin throw (150' 11") and he joined Robert Petersen, Brant McCollum and Ben Kolanowski in a runner up finish in the 4x400 relay (3:33.91).
First-year student-athlete Richard Annorat turned in the sixth-best performance in school history to finish second in the high jump. He cleared the bar at 6' 7".
Jon Wylie contributed second place points when he completed the steeplechase in 10:55.63. Alec Badgley took fourth in the event.
Albion also picked up points in the 800 as Ryan Watson finished second (1:58.94) and Kyle Braun was seventh. Mitchell McCord was sixth in the 400 hurdles and Jon Haadsma was eighth in the 1,500 meters.
While they did not figure in the team score, Head Coach Lance Coleman said Thomas and Jeremy Shephard had breakthrough performances in the 200. Thomas reached the finish line in 23.11, good for 12th place. Shephard was 13th in 23.15.
Albion will send a handful of distance runners to Hillsdale College for the Gina Relays on Thursday.
