With 11 chances to bring home gold, Ohio State was certainly well-represented in Eugene, Oregon for NCAA Track & Field Championships.
Wednesday and Thursday (June 8-9) served as preliminary days for the championship events over the weekend, and Ohio State was represented three times in championship competition with junior Nick Demaline headlining the performances.
Demaline has been solid in shot put all season after transferring from Western Kentucky and really ramped it up going into NCAA competition. At East preliminaries, which decide who gets a bid to the championships, Demaline threw a 20.15m shot, good for his personal best and fourth-best in school history.
It didn't stop once he got to Eugene, either. There, he launched a 20.08m shot that earned him a bronze medal in the event and a spot on the All-American first team. His selection got Ohio State back on to the first team for the first time since JC Muraskey did it in 2015.
The Bucks were also represented on First Team All-America by both their men's and women's 4x400 relay squads
The men's relay, made up of freshman Asa Burke, sophomore Nick Gray and seniors Deshawn Marshall and Champ Page got a readout of 3:05.27 to finish seventh in the NCAA, good for their third consecutive First Team All-America finish and the second for the Scarlet and Gray in 2017.
Marshall also earned second-team honors in the 200m dash and finished ninth in the NCAA at 20.42 seconds and Page finished 18th in the open 400m dash to earn Honorable Mention All-American honors. Junior Zack Bazile also earned a spot on the Honorable Mention squad with a 22nd place finish in the long jump.
The women also impressed in Eugene with an eighth place finish. The foursome of sophomore Karrington Winters, juniors Beatrice Hannan and Maggie Barrie and senior Aaliyah Barnes got a readout of 3:29.97 to secure their spot on the All-American first team.
2017 marks the first time in school history that both the men's and women's 4x400 relays have been named First Team All-Americans in the same season.
Senior Rachel Weber finished 14th in the 800m run at 2:05.99 to earn a spot on the second team and Barrie also finished 22nd in the 400m dash to earn a spot on the Honorable mention team.
In addition to the great finishes by these squads, the men's 4x100 relay of Gray, Marshall and juniors James Clark and Duan Asemota set a new school record at 38.92, but ultimately finished ninth and earned a spot on the second team. The time was the fastest in the history of the meet to not earn a spot in championship competition.
Redshirt senior Donovan Robertson also had a good day to close his Buckeye career, finishing 18th in 110m hurdles at 13.85 seconds. Robertson was a five-time All-American and is tied for the school record in 65m hurdles at 7.65 seconds and second for 110m hurdles at 13.62 seconds.
The women suffered from having only one competing relay team in the finals and finished 72nd while the men benefited greatly from Demaline's six-point finish and finished 33rd.
Upcoming
The next (intercollegiate) Buckeye sporting event will be Women's Soccer on August 9. Until then, Go Bucks!
