Florida Relays Up Next for Buckeyes
3/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
March 29, 2017
Columbus, Ohio — Thirty-eight Ohio State track and field athletes will head to the Sunshine State for the Florida Relays this Friday and Saturday in Gainesville, Fla. The two-day meet will be streamed on WatchESPN (Friday – 12:10 p.m.-4:10 p.m. ET and Saturday – 2:35 p.m.-7:10 p.m.).
Live Results | WatchESPN Stream | Meet Schedule | Heat Sheets
Over 40 Division I teams will be in attendance including No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Kentucky, No. 11 Tennessee, No. 14 Harvard and No. 15 Alabama on the men’s side, and No. 2 Oregon, No. 8 Alabama, No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 14 Tennessee and No. 16 Syracuse for the women. The host of the meet, the Florida Gators, have the No. 1 ranked women’s team and sixth-ranked men’s squad
Top 25 NCAA Marks
Two weeks into the outdoor season, OSU has 10 athletes that have nestled themselves inside the Top 25 in the NCAA.
Anthony Johnson — No. 3 — 800m run
Rachel Weber — No. 3 — 800m run
Sarah Kanney — No. 5 — 3,000m steeplechase
Champ Page — No. 7 — 400m dash
Alex Lomong — No. 7 — 800m run
Cole Gorski — No. 10 — pole vault
Emily Stoodley — No. 11 — 10,000m run
Nick Demaline — No. 14 — shot put
Patrick Kunkel — No. 14 — 3,000m steeplechase
Sade Olatoye — No. 20 — hammer throw
Florida Relays Preview
On the track, the Buckeyes will have a slew of sprinters and mid-distance runners in action. Halimah Barlow and Aaliyah Barnes with double up in the 100m and 200m dash for the women, while Deshawn Marshall will do the same on the men’s side. Champ Page, currently the seventh-fastest 400-meter dasher in the country, will run in that event at 1:50 p.m. ET on Friday.
Distance running wise, the trio of Rachel Weber, Olivia Smith and Annie Ubbing will run at 2:15 p.m. on Friday in the 800m run. Jared Fleming, who owns the third-fastest 800m time in school history, will run alongside Dominik Seitzer following the women’s heats. Sarah Kanney will compete in her first-career 1,500m run with the Scarlet and Gray on at 8:20 p.m. Friday evening.
In the field events, Max Seipel will compete in the hammer throw while Jared Ballenger and Bill Stanley will toss the javelin. Seipel’s best hammer mark of the year ranks him fourth in the Big Ten, and Ballenger’s season-best heave of 62.01m (203-5) at the Baldy Castillo Invitational ranks him ninth in the conference.
Sade Olatoye will be quite busy this weekend, as she is slated to compete in the shot put, hammer throw and discus throw; the sophomore ranks inside of the Top 10 of the Big Ten in all three of those events: second (hammer throw — 60.68m), seventh (shot put — 15.34m) and ninth (discus throw — 49.45m). Kate Deaton will be entered in both the discus and hammer throw, and graduate transfer Alyssa Kopp will be throwing the javelin.
Mikaela Seibert and Olivia Small will double up in the triple and long jumps. Small ranks seventh in the triple jump and ninth in the long jump in the Big Ten. DaJuan Seward will be looking to expand his personal-best mark in the triple jump on Saturday, and he will also compete in the 110m hurdles on Friday.
Megan Hoffman, who broke the school two weeks ago in the pole vault, will make her return in the event; she cleared 3.85m (12-7.5) at the Baldy Castillo to set the mark. Cole Gorski’s season-best pole vault clearance of 5.20m (17-0.75) is currently the No. 1 mark in the conference; Gorski is slated to compete at 1 p.m. on Friday.
Saturday’s track events will solely be devoted to relays. Ohio State has 11 relay squads scheduled to run throughout the day Saturday.
For live updates of events, follow us on Twitter @OhioState_TFXC.
