WESTERVILLE, OHIO -- The Trine University men's outdoor track and field team finished as runners-up at the Otterbein University Twilight Meet in Westerville, Ohio.
Trine finished with a team score of 146 points to place second of 13 teams. Host school Otterbein finished as team champions with 188 points and Malone (Ohio) University was third with 75 points.
The Thunder captured a total of five events with four individual wins and one relay. Two individuals captured victories in the running events in senior Jasper Bassett (Auburn, Ind./DeKalb) and sophomore Neil O'Brien (Whiteland, Ind./Roncalli). Bassett posted a winning time in the 400-meter dash of 51.23 seconds and O'Brien came in first in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:45.41.
Also in the steeple, two additional Trine runners finished in the top-five in seniors Jonathan Phillips (Royal Center, Ind./Pioneer) who placed second in a time of 9:52.68 and Paul Baker (Columbus, Ind./Columbus East) who posted a time of 10:14.03 to finish fourth overall.
In the 1500-meter run, Trine had another runner-up finish, this time by sophomore Levi Neuzerling (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville) who ran a time of 4:07.99. Fellow sophomore Derek Miller (Shipshewana, Ind./Westview) finished one spot back in third place after running a time of 4:08.99.
Other top-five finishes included the duo of freshman Josh Davis (Sterling Heights, Mich./Sterling Heights) and junior Jacob Root (Vicksburg, Mich./Vicksburg) in the 100-meter dash. The duo finished back-to-back with Davis placing fourth after running a time of 11.10 seconds and Root was fifth in a time of 11:16 seconds.
The Thunder also had a winning relay team in the 4x100-meter relay. The team of senior Jeffery Barnett (Fremont, Ohio/Ross), Davis, senior Eric Townsend (Greenwood, Ind./Roncalli) and Root had a combined time of 43.35 seconds to win the event.
In the field events, the Thunder had a pair of individual event winners in Barnett in the long jump and freshman Noah McClellan (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) in the triple jump. Barnett won the long jump with a distance of 22' 7.25" and McClellan had a winning leap of 41' 5.00" in the triple jump.
Senior Nicholas Gerber (Goshen, Ind./Goshen) placed second in the hammer throw following a toss of 160' 4.00".
In the discus, the Thunder took positions three through five with sophomore Nicolas Kane (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles East) finishing third with a distance of 113' 8.00". Sophomore Ben Alston (Adrian, Mich./Sand Creek) was fourth (112" 7.00") and freshman Brandon Cross (Union City, Mich./Union City) was fifth (110' 10.00").
Kane also went on to post a top-five finish in the shot put of 39' 7.25" which was good enough for fifth place.
Rounding out the top-five efforts in the field events was a second-place showing by senior Jacob Payne (LaPorte, Ind./LaPorte) in the pole vault who cleared the bar at a height of 14' 9.00".
Trine is scheduled to compete in the three-day Hillsdale (Mich.) College Gina Relays that begins on Thursday, Apr. 25 in Hillsdale, Mich. The day is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
