Wilmington’s Vilvens wins national title; men's track & field earns highest outdoor nationals finish in program history

Four individuals, four All-Americans. The Wilmington College men's track & field team capped the most successful NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in school history on Saturday. The Quakers tallied three All-American performances including an individual national championship to finish the event in ninth place.

"What an amazing three days," Head Coach Ron Combs said. "Everything started right for us in the 10,000-meter run on Wednesday, and we picked it up on Saturday morning and got the momentum going again. Our four guys just had a great vibe and great confidence when we got here. That started with a great practice on Wednesday."

Brady Vilvens, competing in his first outdoor nationals meet, entered the high jump seeded 19th in the 22-person field. The Wilmington High School alumnus promptly moved into the top half of the field as only 10 competitors cleared 6' 7.5". He was 1-of-6 to do so without a fail, and though the sophomore didn't clear the mark of 6' 8.75" on his first try, Vilvens did on the second.

Only three competitors remained, and Vilvens and Harry Rienecker-Found of Tufts University leaped over the bar set at 6' 9.75" on the first attempt. Bryce Ellinger of Susquehanna University also cleared, but it took him two attempts.

None of the three individuals were able to jump over the bar set at 6' 11", which meant a jump-off between Vilvens and Rienicker-Found for the national championship. What happened next was one of the best displays of sportsmanship seen at the highest stage of NCAA Division III athletics.

Rienicker-Found was injured on one of his attempts at 6' 11", and though Vilvens would have won the jump-off for that reason, he elected to not participate, resulting in a co-national championship between the two competitors.

Vilvens is the first national champion for the Quakers since Christian Patterson won the same event nine years ago.

"Brady winning the national championship was just unreal," said Combs. "I've always felt that he had potential, but in the last few weeks, he really just seemed to find some consistency with his approach. I'm really proud of what transpired in the high jump and how it all ended."

Next up on the day for WC was the hammer throw. Borgan, who qualified for the nationals meet by utilizing a Last Chance Meet earlier in the month, rebounded from a foul and a poor throw to heave a personal-best throw of 193' 6" that earned him a sixth-place finish and All-American honors.

JJ Durr, who was seeded fifth in the event, placed exactly there as his fifth (of six) throws went 193' 11". The All-American honor is the first of Durr's career after two narrow misses at indoor nationals the previous two years.

Earlier at nationals, Simon Heys garnered All-American honors with a fourth-place finish in 10,000-meter run on Thursday.

Seeded 16th in the 22-person field, Heys stayed in the pack early, and was around 12th place at the midway point of the race.

"The conditions were going to be perfect, and we knew people were going to be aggressive," Combs said. "Simon did a great job not getting caught up in that. He was so patient the first four miles."

Heys' five-kilometer split was 14:42, and he ended up running the second half of the race 12 seconds faster than the first. It wasn't until the 6,800-meter mark that the Wilmington High School alumnus moved himself into All-American position (top eight). From that point on, Heys kept passing people.

"I'm so proud of him," said Combs. "He is one of the most dedicated student-athletes I've ever coach. He deserves everything he gets."

After a 13th-place finish in 2021 and crossing the finish line 12th in 2022, Heys, a two-time cross-country All-American, had fulfilled his goal of garnering All-American honors in the outdoor 10,000-meter run. He did so in style, shattering his own school record by over 26 seconds by crossing the finish line in 29:12.62, a time that is the ninth fastest in the history of NCAA Division III.

"I think the biggest difference from this year versus last year is I didn't stray away from what I classify as my best race," Heys said. "Patience is a virtue, especially in the 10,000-meter run."

Heys closed out the meet for Wilmington with a time of 15:02.77 in the 5,000-meter run to place him 17th.

As a team, the Quakers finished with 21 points to finish in ninth place, the highest outdoor finish in program history. MIT won the national title with 60.5 points while two other Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) institutions - John Carroll University (T-3rd) and the University of Mount Union (sixth) also finished in the top 10.

"We started talking last year that we thought we could have a pretty good group for 2024, so I guess we are a year ahead of schedule," Combs commented. "All of our guys that scored are back, and we have more people that are capable of getting to the national meet if they put the work in."