For Immediate Release
2007 Men's Outdoor Track Wrap-Up
Nebraska Wesleyan extended its streak of
conference team titles in men’s outdoor track and field
to 19 in a row, but by an extremely narrow margin. NWU entered
the meet’s final event, the 4x400-meter relay, leading
rival Doane College by just 3.5 points.
In the last 100 meters of the race’s final leg, Doane
was leading, followed by Hastings College and Nebraska Wesleyan.
The four-point difference between first and third place would
have given the Tigers the title, but the anchor runner from
Hastings caught and edged Doane’s anchor at the tape
to give the Prairie Wolves an advantage of 1.5 points in the
final team scoring.
Five men earned GPAC individual crowns, including Jed Droge
(long jump), Ben Thayer (400 hurdles), Logan Watley (1,500),
Chris Wolf (400) and Derek Zulkoski (pole vault). Dylan Aylward’s
runner-up and school record performance of 185-10 in the javelin
was equally important in helping to make up for a dropped
baton that disqualified NWU in the 4x100, an event it had
won each of the three previous years.
Droge and Wolf broke school records that were previously held
by Eron Keely (1985) and Steve Reynolds (1991), respectively.
Wolf’s time of 47.17 in the 400 was also a stadium and
a conference outdoor championships meet record.
Prior to their GPAC title, the Prairie Wolves also captured
top honors at the Dick Young Classic hosted by Grinnell College
on April 21. Nebraska Wesleyan’s 4x100 team produced
a meet record (41.03), which automatically qualified them
for the NCAA Division III Championships.
At Nationals, NWU finished tied for 49th with four points.
Seniors Droge and Thayer earned All-America honors with seventh-place
finishes in their events. In addition, Ted Bulling was named
Central Region Coach of the Year in Division III, and Coffin
shared NWU’s Outstanding Male Athlete award for 2006-07.
Academic honors were plentiful as well. Gordie Coffin, Droge
and Evan Knight were each named to ESPN The Magazine’s
Academic All-America® First Team as selected by CoSIDA,
and as a team, Nebraska Wesleyan’s men ranked No. 2
nationally in Division III with a combined GPA of 3.40 and
received the USTFCCCA All-Academic Team award.
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