Jackets Open Outdoor Season with Strong Showing at Cincinnati Relays

Combined Track and Field Results

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The outdoor season got off to a good start for Defiance on Saturday at the University of Cincinnati’s Early Bird Relays as several athletes placed themselves in DC’s record books with top-10 efforts and Trevor Matuszak shattered the school mark for the hammer throw.

Matuszak claimed the Defiance record in the hammer with a toss of 165-02, shattering Gene Szweda’s (2004) previous mark of 155-08 by nearly 10 feet.

The Yellow Jackets also faired well in the high jump, posting the highest team score with a fourth and fifth-place showing from Brad Zarembski and Eric Swartz. Zarembski turned in a jump of 6-03.25, while Swartz topped out at 6-01.25. Both marks were good enough to rank among the top ten in DC history.

Mark Leugers started his outdoor campaign right where he left off indoors, placing highly in the 100 meters, long jump and triple jump events. Leugers’ score of 40-11.75 in the triple jump netted a second-place finish and was the ninth-best jump in DC history while his 20-11.25 in the long jump was good for sixth overall and seventh best in DC history.

The women had three athletes crack DC’s top ten and recorded numerous high finishes at the competition.

Kristyn Tooley turned in the fifth-best mark in school history in the triple jump, recording a 32-07.00 and ending fifth. Tooley also placed 10th in the long jump.

Laura Derov took sixth in the shot put with a score of 35-03.00, good for the third-best throw in DC history and finished fourth in the javelin (85-07).

Jessica Lipstraw rounded out the top performers for the Lady Jackets with a throw of 113-01.00 in the discuss to take third place in the event. The score also placed Lipstraw in fourth place on DC’s all-time outdoor list.

Defiance will be back in action on the 24th when it hosts the Dick Small Invitational.