BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Augustana used superior depth on the way to a season-opening victory in the Illinois Wesleyan Triangular on Saturday, January 30 at the Shirk Center in Bloomington, Illinois. The Vikings won four events, but more importantly, had multiple place-winners in 10 of the individual events. The result was 112 points to win the meet as Millikin totaled 95 and Illinois Wesleyan had 80.
 
Three of those individual victories came in the field events, including the pole vault where the Vikings had a one-two-three sweep. Senior Kyle Baus (Naperville Central HS, Naperville, Ill.) took first while sophomore Seth Rohr (Rock Canyon HS, Pella, Iowa) was second and freshman Derek Butts (Yorkville HS, Yorkville, Ill.) placed third. All three cleared 12' 5 ½".
 
Senior Ryan Thornton (Bartonville-Limestone HS, Mapleton, Ill.) won the long jump with a leap of 21' 10 ¾" and was fifth in the 60 in :07.44. Senior Mason Wright (Polo HS, Woosung, Ill.) took the triple jump with a mark of 45' 2 ½" and was fourth in the long jump (21' 2 ½").
 
The other individual victory came on the track where senior Joshua Teets (Burlington Central HS, Maple Park, Ill.) won the 800 in 1:59.03.
 
Freshman Connor McBride (Sterling Newman Catholic HS, Dixon, Ill.) placed second in the 60 in :07.17 and third in the 200 in :23.31 while junior Ian Rothery (Wheaton North HS, Wheaton, Ill.) was second in the 200 (:23.16) and fourth in the 60 (:07.38).
 
In the 400 freshman Colin Stapleton (Lockport HS, Lockport, Ill.) was second in :56.16 with freshman Zach Vandagriff (Papillion-LaVista HS, Papillion, Neb.) placing third (:57.47) and Dean Check grabbing fourth (:57.97).
 
Junior Brady Johnson (Harlem HS, Loves Park, Ill.) finished second in the mile in 4:54.08 while freshman Jack Bathje (Rockford East HS, Rockford, Ill.) was fourth (5:06.81) and sophomore Mason Hurless (Woodstock HS, Woodstock, Ill.) placed sixth (5:12.21).
 
Senior Jacob Vowell (Maine South HS, Park Ridge, Ill.) was third in the 800 (2:07.44) behind Teets' victory and sophomore Adam Schumacher (Jacksonville HS, South Jacksonville, Ill.) took fourth (2:13.69).
 
The Vikings had outstanding team efforts in the throws. Sophomore Jacob Uhlmann (Geneva HS, Geneva, Ill.) led four place winners in the shot with a third place toss of 42' 4". Freshman Brett Kuras (Batavia HS, Batavia, Ill.) was fourth (42' 2 ¼"), freshman Akyeem Spivey (Warren Township HS, Gurnee, Ill.) placed fifth (42' 0 ¾") and freshman Luke Cowan (Paxton-Buckley-Loda HS, Buckley, Ill.) was sixth (41' 2 ½"). The weight toss saw sophomore Carson Eipers (Naperville Central HS, Naperville, Ill.) take third (46' 10 ¼"), sophomore Josh O'Brien (Sterling HS, Sterling, Ill.) place fifth (41' 8 ½") and sophomore Alex Jaramillo (Alleman Catholic HS, East Moline, Ill.) finish sixth (36' 3 ½").
 
The 4x400 relay of junior Michael Gille (Harlem HS, Roscoe, Ill.), Teets, senior Jackson Mainellis (South Elgin HS, Bartlett, Ill.) and Vowell finished third in 3:44.16.
 
Senior Riley Smith (St. Charles North HS, South Elgin, Ill.) finished fourth in the 60 hurdles in :09.91 with senior Daniel Bornstein (Carl Sandburg HS, Orland Park, Ill.) placing fifth (:10.32) and Vandagriff taking sixth (:11.13).
 
Junior Evan Webber (Vernon Hills HS, Vernon Hills, Ill.) was fifth in the 3000 in 9:23.22.
 
The Vikings will be in action again on Saturday, February 6 in Bloomington against the same two opponents with the meet starting at 3:30 p.m.