GRANVILLE, Ohio — The Kenyon College men’s indoor track and field team racked up 31 points and placed sixth Saturday at Denison University’s annual Bob Shannon Invitational. The day for the Owls included a record-setting run in the 4x400-meter relay.
On the women’s side, while finishing eighth as a team, a quartet of Owls teamed up to secure a first-place finish in the distance medley relay.
The Kenyon men’s 4x400 relay team ran the last event of the day, and Emmanuel Makelele, Tapiwa Gono Phiri, Julius Thompson and Collin Witt clocked in at 3:31.43 for a second-place finish that erased the previous Kenyon record of 3:31.67. That mark was set on March 2, 1991, by a team that included John Hanichek, Charles Huh, Mike Marshall and James Fleming.
Kenyon had another runner-up relay finish earlier in the day, as the Owls distance medley foursome finished with a time of 11:00.67. That Kenyon quartet included Peter Bernhardt, Jimmy Baker, Robert Enslein and Keegan Minahan.
In individual events, Gono Phiri turned in the best placement for the Owls, running the 60-meter dash in 7.06 seconds. The earned him third place and tacked on six points to the Kenyon team total.
In the final team standings, host Denison won the tournament trophy by racking up 181.5 points. The College of Wooster was second with 106.5 points and California University of Pennsylvania was third, scoring 102 points.
The Owl women saw Robert Morris University, an NCAA Division I school, pace the field with 186.5 points, while meet host Denison finished second with 122.
The distance medley allowed the Owls to show off their skills at four different distances, and the collection of talents led to Kenyon’s best finish of the day. Anna Brown, a first-year, led off by running the opening leg 21 seconds faster than her nearest competitor. Denna Medrano, a senior, maintained Kenyon’s lead before handing it off to Lorien Kauffman, a junior, in the third leg. Senior Ella Wilson anchored the relay team and clinched a victory as the quartet clocked a time of 13:18.84, which was just over 33 seconds better than the runners-up.
