FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Oklahoma Baptist men's track and field team represented well on Saturday at the Arkansas Spring Invitational, earning four NCAA DII provisional marks and 12 top-10 individual finishes.
Matthew Higdon led OBU's efforts with a win in the hammer with a season-best heave of 60.46m (198-4). It is the 16th-best throw in DII and the sixth time Higdon has taken top honors in the event in his career.
Also competing in the event was freshman Matthew Werschem, whose personal-best hurl of 50.01m (164-1) took sixth. It is the second-furthest mark from a Bison rookie in the program's NCAA era. Werschem also collected a fifth-place recognition in the shot put with a PR of 14.53m (47-8).
Alexander Schovanec continued his stellar outdoor season with second and third-place finishes in the shot put (15.38m; 50-5.5) and discus (47.27m; 155-1), respectively.
Elijah Wood drew a fourth-place nod in the shot put with the third-best outdoor heave of his career, 14.60m (47-11).
Evan Olson posted an NCAA provisional in the javelin after a throw of 58.92m (193-4). Rounding out the field participants was Trey Bartholomew, who also collected a provisional with a third-place finish in the high jump (2.06m; 6-9).
Marcus Petersen's 49.26 in the 400m received fourth and ranks as the fourth quickest GAC time. Sean Dixon led OBU's 400m hurdle entries with a third-place time of 53.71, ahead of Aaryn Anderson's 55.02 that took fifth.
Anderson added a provisional time of 14.24 in the 110 hurdles, which placed 10th.
Caden Peevey clocked the program's fastest 100m by a freshman in the DII era, besting Kenneth Combs' 10.61 back in 2013. As a result, Peevey finished 19th.
Lastly, OBU's 4x400 and 4x100 squads turned in fourth (3:20.22) and sixth (41.11) place finishes, respectively.
NEXT UP
Oklahoma Baptist will make the long trek out to Azusa, California for the Bryan Clay Invitational next weekend.
