Ohio Northern Track and Field

Day 2 of Spirit Week made it hard to tell the difference between all our sets of twins at practice today! Check out how well our twins know each other in our story.

4 days until conference!

Team so big, we had to use that 0.5 😮‍💨

It’s that time of year again! OAC WEEK! Todays theme was neon, making the the polar bears hard to miss as they glowed around the green monster for warm up.

5 days until conference!

On Day 3 of week, Mitch Vance shares some thoughts on sharing institutional and individual responsibilities and action steps for fostering belonging and inclusive excellence.

Building an inclusive space is a shared responsibility.

It’s week! In this three-day social media campaign, we will explore different ways that student athletes, coaches, and administrators can better create inclusive spaces through college sports.

Today, cross country freshman Maria Geiger shares her thoughts on “Understanding the Why”: Why do I support others who have different identities and experiences?

Our final school record from the 2023 Track & Field season was posted up yesterday! After all was said and done the bears walked away with 9 school records between indoor and outdoor.

Let's hear it for our new record holders!

Autumn leaves and fast feet. It's definitely the heart of cross country season in Ada 🍂

A tribute to our staff of coaches on National Coaches Day—they push us, they teach us, they comfort us, they celebrate us.

Today it’s time to celebrate them for all they do for the ONU XC/T&F programs. Our sport and success would not be possible without the daily sacrifices they make for our team. Thank you, Coaches!

Thanks to some fundraising efforts and generous donations from alumni and friends through our Polar Bear Club the Bears were able to secure some new equipment for the year!

Our Bears will be able to utilize five new Normatec recovery boots. These boots will be used throughout the week and travel with us on our overnight competitions.

Vaulters on the track and field team will be putting up some big bars on a brand new landing system.

Finally, you'll be able to spot our Bears at any meet with a new tent!

Thanks again to those who helped support the Bears, this equipment will go a long way! Interested in donating to the Ohio Northern Cross Country and Track & Field teams? Find out how ://www.onu.edu/pbc

We are excited to announce that our winter Track & Field camp is back again for 2023! This year we are currently offering all jumping events, shot put & weight throw.

High School & Junior High athletes will not want to miss this opportunity to fine tune before their seasons! Space is limited so sign up today.

Camp dates are December 16th & 17th.
For grades 7-12.
Sign up and more information can be found @ onusports.com/athletics/camps_clinics/index

Our men won D3 All-Ohio for the first time since 2017 👊 They were top five across all divisions.

Our women posted a fourth place D3 finish and were top 10 across all divisions. Both teams raced hard and their efforts paid off! Good job, bears!

The Polar Bear Award is back!

We have to catch you up on some of our favorite performances of the first two weeks of racing.

Week 1- Bluffton Beaver Dam Invite

Women: Syd Goodrich returned to competition with a vengeance. After a year navigating health challenges, Syd opened up her senior season with a new 5k PR and 14th place finish. She was our fifth scorer to help lead the women to a second place finish.

Men: Jacob Clouse had himself a summer! Coming off of an impressive track season, Jacob showed his growth on the cross country course with a new 6k PR of 19:02 and a 13th place finish overall. He was the bears’ fourth scorer to guide the squad to a very narrow third place finish.

Week 2: NCAC Preview

Women: Natalie Armbruster is off to a very consistent season. After a huge 5k PR in week 1, she came back in week 2 on a tough course to place 19th overall as ONU’s fourth scorer.

Men: Trent Babcock has also posted some impressive consistency. He posted a 6k PR and 34th place finish at Bluffton only to follow it up with a 39th place finish a week later. He was ONU’s 8th finisher.

It’s meet day!

The P-Bears return to action today at the NCAC Preview hosted by Denison in Granville, OH.

The men will start with 8k at 10am and the women will follow in the 6k at 10:45am.

Follow live results at Columbus Running Company Timing.

We're excited to announce our Indoor High School meets for the 2024 season!

Ohio Northern will be hosting two meets in 2024.
- Jan 6th
- Jan 13th

Meet details can be found on ONUSPORTS.COM and registration will be on oh.milesplit.com

The moment you’ve been waiting for (posted a few hours late to build extra anticipation 😉) These were our top moments from last season. They come from two bears who repeated some of the highest honors one could receive.

Men’s: One All-American honor should always be celebrated. But how about two in one year?! Keegan Digby returned to the national scene to capture a pair of All-American honors—one in the indoor shot put and one in the outdoor shot put. It’s difficult to have success at the national level, which is why it was even more impressive that Keegan has been able to replicate it. He is now a 3x All-American (with more to come!)

Women’s: The Elite 90 award goes to the top student at the national meet. Only one person per sport receives it so it is a particularly prestigious award. Two years ago, Tessa Pitcovich became the first woman in ONU history to receive such an award, and last year, she replicated this achievement, winning her second consecutive and ONU’s second female elite 90 award.

Way to represent ONU, Keegan & Tessa!


Tomorrow is Bluffton!!

Our #2 moments from last year were two pretty special ones.

Women: The goal of any athlete is to peak for a championship so they perform their best when it counts. In the women’s high jump at our outdoor conference meet four bears did just that! Freshmen Lindsay Weininger & Riley Heitkamp both set personal bests to finish 1-2, sophomore Toria Ingalls jumped a seasons best to finish 5th, and freshman Ellie Ford battled for 6th. This gave the women 25 points!

Men: It’s one thing to make it to the NCAA National meet, and it’s quite another to perform well there. Sophomore Jordan Dean qualified for his first ever NCAA National meet last spring, running a blistering new school record time of 46.85 in the 400m dash to get there. In the prelim, Jordan nearly tied this PR, running 46.93 against a stacked field to make it through to the final. Some athletes spend their whole careers chasing All-American honors. Jordan did it at his first National meet.



T-2 days until Bluffton!

We are now into our top 3 in our 10-moment countdown!

Men: Vini Souza, Jordan Dean, Hunter Kesler, and Ollie Jacobs make up the fastest 4x100m relay in school history. Their time of 40.72 broke the ONU school record and qualified them for the NCAA National championship meet.

Women: It took Taylor Ellerbrock five years to win a conference title, but my was it worth the wait! Ellerbrock captured a dominating win in the steeplechase at the outdoor conference meet, winning the OAC title in a new PR of 11:25.96, the fifth fastest time in ONU history.



T-3 days until Bluffton!

Behind every successful program is a team of staff—that’s why No. 4 on the women’s side goes to our women’s T&F coaching staff for being named OAC coaching staff of the year last spring 💪

Coach Amidon, our sprints and hurdles coach, was also named Great Lakes Regional Men’s Assistant Coach of the year for her fantastic work on the national level with our men’s sprints squad. Four of these men come in at our No. 4 spot for their outstanding work on the 4x4 relay. Not only did they break our outdoor school record, but they were Top 16 in the nation outdoors, having qualified for and competed in the NCAA D3 national championships.



T-4 days until Bluffton!

Some impressive individual growth and a great team performance take the 5th spot in our countdown.

Men: Reese Barker hit his rhythm this year, running his fastest time of the season to take second place at our conference meet. The time of 14.97 is the second fastest 110 hurdle time in ONU history and almost an entire second faster than he ran the same distance the year before.

Women: The women's cross country team demonstrated great team running at the 2022 conference meet. The top seven women finished in the top 25 of the over 100 runner field. Their hard work took them to a second place finish in the meet, their highest finish in years.

T-5 days until our opening cross country meet!

Filling our number 6 slots in our countdown are two bears who brought in big points at our conference meets.

Women: Izzy Burman had a massive indoor conference taking first place in both the weight throw and the shot put. Her distance of 12.91m was almost two feet further than the closest competitor.

Men: Trey Myers led the outdoor 800m wire to wire to earn his second straight outdoor 800m title. This gave the bears 10 important points in the battle for team scores.

T-6 days until our opening CC meet!

Taking the number 7 slots in our countdown are 5 bears who fought when it counted for their team.

Men: During his final indoor meet in the orange and black Vini Souza dropped the second fastest 60m dash time in ONU history running 6.95. A week before, he provided valuable points in the conference championships and would go on to represent the bears in the 4x100 at the NCAA outdoor nationals.

Women: At the OAC outdoor conference championships the quartet of Tessa Pitcovich, Ashley Hockstock, Kennedy Rader, and Megan Vapenik went 2,4,5,6 in the 10k finals. This brought in 18 valuable points to help the women score the most points they've tallied at this meet since 2018.

T-7 more days until our opening CC meet!

Number 8 in our countdown goes to two bears etching their name in the record books.

Women: Kendra Krichbaum made history outdoors last year when she set a new school record of 12.22 in the 100-meter dash, becoming just the third woman in ONU history to run under 12.3 in this event.

Men: In the men’s distance events, Trey Masterson had a dominant season. At the WashU Distance Carnival in St. Louis, he ran a 5k of 14:25.46, just narrowly missing the men’s 5k school record held by All-American Ian McVey.



T-8 more days until Bluffton!

Coming in at number 9 in our Top 10 countdown are a couple of bears who made history last season.

Men: We don’t always run the outdoor 3k but when we do, we break records. That’s just what Aaron Guzman did last year at the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic. His time of 8:43.55 is a new school record.

Women: Lots of talent came into last year’s women’s freshman class, including that of pole vaulter Claire Schweller, who cleared an indoor height of 11-10 in the vault. This mark ties ONU grad & national champion Maddy Reed’s freshman record from 2016.



T-9 days until Bluffton!

We’re baaaaaack! The 2023-24 school year is officially underway, which means Fall XC racing is just around the corner. To help us count down the days until our first meet, we will once again revisit the Top 10 moments from this past year in ONU XC/T&F. Here are some of our favorites.

Coming in at #10:

Women: Hannah Friend was not messing around at the Outdoor OAC Championships. She opened up her series in discus with a throw of 42.48 meters, a new PR that earned her OAC runner-up in this event. Her mark also put her No. 2 all time in women’s Discus behind National Runner-up and 4x All-American Gina Fall.

Men: At the OAC Championship meet, the DMR team of Brooks Blakeley, Ben Zimmerer, Alan Dravenstott, and Ryan Massie ran their way to a third place finish, capturing All-OAC honors and scoring valuable team points for the Polar Bears at the conclusion of Day 1 of competition.

Tune in over the next 10 days to catch more year highlights!



T-10 days until Bluffton!

Early morning miles.

Ada sunshine ☀️

First cross country practice ✅️

🐻‍❄

Our final group of New Bears rounds out a special incoming class for us. We're excited to have these Student-Athletes join us for the next few years and can't wait to see how they grow!

Keep those likes and shares coming. See a friend? Give em a shout out.

Yes, we are still going! We're excited for this fourth group of New Bears. Aren't you?

Keep those likes and shares coming. See a friend? Give em a shout out. Will introduce our final group of New Bears tomorrow

Day three of our New Bear introductions and it just keeps getting better! Pumped to welcome these student-athletes to ONU.

Keep those likes and shares coming! See a friend? Give em a shout out. We'll introduce another group of New Bears tomorrow

On the 1st day of August please help us welcome our second group of New Bears!

Keep those likes and shares coming! See a friend? Give em a shout out. We'll introduce another group of New Bears tomorrow

We're thrilled to welcome our first group of New Bears to our program!
Please help us celebrate the new members of our team!

Stay tuned through the week as we introduce the rest of our incoming bears!

Through the Lens: Some of the best photos of bears by bears 🐻‍❄️

Here's our final installment of some of the best shots taken by the bears. Let us know your favorite pic from the series!

Gallery By:

wolters

greer41

Through the Lens: Some of the best photos of bears by bears 🐻‍❄️

Here's a second installment of some of the best shots taken by the bears. These moments are definitely for the archives.

Gallery By:

wolters

greer41

Bears put in work on the track and the classroom 😤

Congratulations to both the Women's and Men's teams for earning All-Academic Team awards. Special shoutout too for our five All-Academic Individual award winners:
Hannah
Tessa
Anna
Trey
Vini

Through the Lens: Some of the best photos of bears by bears 🐻‍❄️

In addition to their talents on the cross course and track, quite a few of our bears have some hidden talent behind the lens of a camera. By the end of the season we've got hundreds of candid shots. Through the rest of July we'll be dropping a few of our favorites from the past year.

Gallery By:

wolters

greer41

It's meet day for ONU T&F Alum and current assistant coach !! Coach Richards will run in the 1st round of the 800m at the USATF Outdoor Championships at 6:18 tonight. You can follow along @ https://results.usatf.org/2023Outdoors/

While at ONU Coach Richards was a 9x NCAA D3 national champ and 13x All-American. She currently has 13 school records including an NCAA D3 record of 2:00.62 in the outdoor 800m.

Join us in wishing Coach Richards the best of luck today at USA nationals!

Congratulations to 10 of our bears for being named Academic All-District by College Sports Communicators!!

To earn this these bears needed to earn above a 3.5 GPA and compete in at least 50% of our compitions this year. 👏 👏 👏

Jordan Dean is an All-American!

In his first trip to the national meet Jordan put it all on the line and walked away with an All-American trophy in the 400m. A great representation for ONU and plenty more coming in the future!

Keegan Digby, 3x All-American

Keegan held his own against the nation’s best in the NCAA championship men’s shot put final this afternoon. He represented ONU well & we are so very proud of him!

Day 2 is underway!

Keegan throws in flight 2 of the men’s shot put, which starts at 1pm.

Jordan runs the men’s 400m prelim in heat 2 at 5:30pm.

Watch at NCAA.com

It’s day one of the NCAA Championships and we have polar bears in three events!

Men’s 4x1 prelim - 5pm
Men’s 4x4 prelim - 8:35pm
Women’s 10k final - 9:50pm

Follow the live broadcast at ncaa.com

This past weekend three more bears either moved up the all-time Top 10 lists or improved their marks in their current spots.

Let's give it up for Trey, Nick & Izzy!