Ohio State Opens Outdoor Slate in Arizona
3/16/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
March 16, 2017
Columbus, Ohio – The Ohio State track and field team will open its outdoor season this Friday and Saturday at the Baldy Castillo Invitational. The Buckeyes will send 49 athletes (29 women and 22 men) to Tempe, Ariz., for the two-day meet that will take place at Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium.
Meet Schedule (Times are PST) | Live Results | Live Stream | Heat Sheets
Fans will be able to watch the second day of action as it will be streamed for free on pac-12.com from 5 to 8:15 p.m. ET. This will be the first of seven meets for the Buckeyes before they head to State College, Pa., for the Big Ten Championships (May 12-14). Ohio State will host the Jesse Owens Classic, its only home meet of the season, April 21-22.
Season Primer
The men’s team returns over 72 percent (55 of 75.5 points) of its scoring from last year’s Big Ten Championships. The Buckeyes’ sprint trio of Nick Gray, Deshawn Marshall and Champ Page are scheduled to have outstanding outdoor seasons. Gray swept the 100m (10.49) and 200m (20.54) titles at last year’s Big Ten’s on his way to racking up 20 points for the Scarlet and Gray.
Gray earned All-America honors in the 200m dash at the NCAA Championships with a seventh-place finish. The sophomore was also a member of the 4x400m relay team that earned First Team All-America accolades for the second year in a row. Three of the four legs of that relay team return for Ohio State this spring with Jerry Jackson and Page joining Gray.
Zack Bazile will lead the field athletes in 2017; he earned silver at the 2016 Big Ten Championships with a long jump of leap of 7.65m (25-1.25) and went on to earn First Team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships. Bill Stanley will look to win his second Big Ten javelin title this season; as a freshman, Stanley shocked the Big Ten and won gold with a school and meet record of 75.23m (246-10.00). In 2016, Stanley earned silver in the javelin throw at Big Ten’s.
Other returning scorers for the men are DaJuan Seward, who tallied five points between the 100m hurdles and triple jump, Evan Stifel (10,000m run) and Jared Fleming (800m run). Transfer Nick Demaline will undoubtedly have a say in the men’s shot put with a chance for a conference title and Josh Fridley (high jump) and Jared Ballenger (discus), both of whom placed ninth their respective events in 2016, will have a chance to add to the Buckeyes’ point total.
The women’s scoring attack will be led by sophomore standout Sade Olatoye. The Dublin, Ohio native will have a chance to score in three events for the Scarlet and Gray. In 2016, Olatoye scored three points in both the discus and hammer throw and she narrowly missed out on points in the shot put with a ninth-place finish.
Mikaela Seibert produced four points with a fifth-place finish in the triple jump at the 2016 Big Ten’s. In 2017, Seibert has already improved her career-best triple jump by eight inches during the indoor season. Sophomore Karrington Winters and senior Rachel Weber, who went one-two in the 600m run during indoors, will most surely add points during outdoors.
In the short sprints, Aaliyah Barnes, Bliss Soleyn and Halimah Barlow, all three of whom scored points at indoors, will be the energizing force for the Buckeyes in the sprints. All four legs of the women’s 4x400m relay that became the first foursome in school history to earn First Team All-America honors during indoors remain intact (Beatrice Hannan, Winters, Barnes and Maggie Barrie).
Newcomers Taylor DeLoach (long jump), Lyne’a Diller (shot put), Sarah Kanney (1,500m run/3,000m steeplechase) and Alyssa Kopp (javelin throw) will have the opportunity to score in their respective events as well.
Competition
The Baldy Castillo will feature Air Force, Iowa, Kentucky, Loyola (Ill.), Oklahoma, North Dakota State, South Dakota, Texas A&M, Minnesota (M) and Utah (W).
Follow us on Twitter @OhioState_TFXC for live updates throughout the meet.
