Jerome Baker earned one last victory as a Buckeye, at the same place where he won his last game as a Buckeye, when the former Ohio State linebacker won the obstacle course competition at the All-Star Football Challenge on Wednesday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Baker completed the Mercedes-Benz Obstacle Course in a time of 24.35 seconds, completing the course four-tenths of a second faster than Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough (24.75 seconds), who finished in second place.
UTSA defensive end Marcus Davenport (25.35), USC linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (25.53), Oklahoma defensive end Ogbonnia Okoronkwo (26.97) and Florida State safety Derwin James (29.62) were the other competitors in the obstacle course competition.
During Friday's broadcast of the event on ESPN2, Baker said his ankle "buckled a little bit" during the competition, but he still prevailed to earn the victory – which came with a $5,000 prize.
Baker also said it felt good to earn the victory over Scarborough and the SEC.
"That's all that matters," Baker told ESPN's Kris Budden with a smile, also noting that he and Scarborough have been training together for their NFL draft workouts at IMG Academy.
Former Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett also participated in the All-Star Football Challenge, finishing third in the quarterback accuracy competition with a time of 43.55 seconds, behind UCLA's Josh Rosen (22.54 seconds) and Toledo's Logan Woodside (24.53) but ahead of Texas Tech's Nic Shimonek (45.20), LSU's Danny Etling (47.22) and Virginia's Kurt Benkert (50.40).
Barrett hit each of his first five targets, at distances of five, 10 and 15 yards, on his first attempt, but struggled to hit the sixth target – which required the quarterbacks to throw the ball into a net 20 yards downfield – which cost him the time needed to keep up with Rosen and Woodside.
Baker and Barrett also teamed up with former Iowa cornerback Josh Jackson and guard Sean Welsh to participate in the team competition at Wednesday's event, in which the Big Ten finished third with a time of 42.23 seconds, while the Big Ten finished fourth out of six teams, behind the Wildcard team (made up of athletes from Group of 5 schools), Pac-12 and SEC teams but ahead of the Big 12 and ACC teams in the overall event standings.
