DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Franklin College men's track and field team lined up against the top athletes from around the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) on Saturday (Feb. 19) at the 2022 HCAC Indoor Track and Field Championships.
The Grizzlies turned in their best team finish in years, gathering 62 points to end the day in fifth place overall. The last time the Grizzly men placed that high at the conference championships was 2014, when Franklin placed second.
Senior Zak Wiley walked away with two honors at the event, winning his signature event and earning HCAC Men's Most Outstanding Throws Athlete of the Year. The Mooresville, Ind.-native dominated in the weight throw, repeating as gold medalist with a toss of 16.33m. Wiley earned points in both of his events at the championships, taking eighth in the shot put with a toss of 13.00m.
Also claiming gold was Franklin's distance medley relay of Elliott Gough, Michael Heading, Eli Cochrane and Jack Sells. The group hit the finish line in 11:04.69 to win by five seconds and give Franklin gold in the event for the second straight year with Heading and Cochrane holdovers from last year's winning team.
The Grizzlies grabbed three more podium finishes at the event, the first coming in the high jump where freshman Tristan Konkler claimed silver after clearing the 1.84-meter mark. Also earning a silver medal was junior Jaycee Wilburn in the 800m after he just missed out on gold with a time of 1:58.89. The final podium finish went to the 4x400m relay team with Heading, Cochrane, Wilburn and Luke Paddock earning bronze with a mark of 3:33.42.
Other notable point-getters included sophomore Noah Sigler taking fourth in the weight throw (15.52m), Nick Patton taking fifth in the 60m hurdles (8.83), freshman John Asplund taking sixth in both the 3K (8:42.39) and the 5K (16:02.17) and Gough grabbing eighth in the mile (4:42.39). The 4x200 meter relay team of Patton, Henry Davidson, Tivon Wiley and Zach Roberts grabbed sixth place with a time of 1:35.89.
Franklin is off until Mar. 5, when the Grizzlies will head to Ada, Ohio to take part in the NCAA Final Qualifier.
