Record Setting Day For Heidelberg Track & Field

Third-year head coach Kevin Lucas and his Heidelberg College men’s and women’s track and field teams set five school records and provisionally qualified two athletes for the 2007 NCAA Division III National Championships at the 2007 Gina Relays hosted by Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mich.

Leading the way at the three-day event was freshmen Julius Higginbotham (Elyria, Ohio / Elyria) and Jamie Depinet (New Riegel, Ohio / New Riegel). Higginbotham and Depinet provisionally qualified for nationals in the long jump and the 400-meter dash, respectively. Higginbotham leaped to a seventh place finish at 23’7.75”, while Depinet crossed the finish line in 57.15. Aside from provisionally qualifying for nationals, Depinet topped her own school record in the 400-meter dash. It was the third-straight outing that Depinet set a new mark in the event.

Senior Nikki Jones (Fremont, Ohio / Hopewell-Loudon) set a new school record in the 800-meter run at 2:18.02. Jones topped Joni Wilhelm’s school record of 2:19.72 which was set in 2002.

In the relay events, the women’s 4x400-meter relay team of Depinet, Jones, Angela Zellner (Twinsburg, Ohio / Twinsburg) and Jaimee Olmstead (Stryker, Ohio / Stryker) raced to a fifth place finish and topped their own school record in a time of 3:58.08.

Both the men’s and women’s 4x100-meter relay teams set new Heidelberg marks. The women’s quartet of Zellner, Jones, Depinet and Paige Reiman (Defiance, Ohio / Tinora) crossed the finish line in 50.58, topping their own record of 50.62. The men’s team finished fourth in a school record 42.30. Racing to the new school mark in the 4x100-meter relay was Higginbotham, Steven Malone (Shaker Heights, Ohio / Shaker Heights), Paris Hilliard (Lorain, Ohio / Admiral King) and Justin Shields (Lorain, Ohio / Amherst L. Steele).