Men's Track and Field Second at OAC Championships; Three Individuals Earn Recognition

(ALLIANCE, OH)--Mount Union's men's track team placed second at the 2010 Ohio Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships at Mount Union Stadium in Alliance.

The Purple Raiders were 19.5 points shy of Heidelberg as the Student Prince claimed its third men's title in school history.

Three Raiders also earned individual awards as sophomore Sean Denard (Naperville, IL/Naperville North) was OAC Field Athlete of the Meet, junior Ty Griffin (Massillon/Massillon Perry) was OAC Distance Runner of the Meet and freshman Charles Pratt (Canton/GlenOak) was OAC Sprinter of the Meet.

The top three place winners in each event earn All-OAC honors.

Denard won the discus and automatically qualified for the NCAA Track and Field Championships with a mark of 173-10 and then provisionally qualified for the national meet with a third place mark in the shot (53-8.25).

Pratt, who was also the Sprinter of the Meet at the OAC Indoor Championships, was second in both the 100 meters (11.06) and 200 meters (22.16) and part of the second place finishing 4x100 meter relay team (42.32).

Griffin won both the 1500 meters (3:58.22) and 5000 meters (15:10.95) and was part of the third place 4x800 meter relay team (7:47.17).

Sophomore Kory Smerk (Middleberg Heights/Midpark) also claimed a win as he took the title in the 400 meters (48.79) and was part of the second place 4x400 meter relay team.

A pair of throws rounded out the top performances as senior Judd Lutz (Tiffin/Tiffin Columbian) was second in both the shot put (53-10.25) and discus (173-03) while junior Marc Aukerman (Greensburg, PA/Latrobe) was third in the javelin (182-5).

A handful of athletes will try to qualify for the NCAA Championships by competing in some last chance meets starting Friday at The University of Toledo.