BEREA, Ohio – The Mount Union men's track and field team title came down to the final event as the Purple Raiders won the 4x400-meter relay claiming its 11th straight team title at the 2022 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships Friday at Baldwin Wallace University.
 
The Purple Raiders tallied 223 points to win their conference record 38th outdoor team title and beat second place John Carroll by just two points. Wilmington was in third place with 111 points.
 
Senior Tanner Slack (New Concord / John Glenn) and Evan Hershberger (Dalton) won co-field athletes of the meet as Slack won the high jump and finished second in the triple jump while Hershberger picked up a victory in the long jump and second place in high jump.
 
The final event of the day became the most important as the team title came down to Mount Union and John Carroll. The Raiders came away with the win running 3:17.34 with the team consisting of Seniors Tyler Gill (Greenville, Pa. / Reynolds), Dylon Campbell (Cuyahoga Falls) and juniors Justin Knoch (Canton / GlenOak) Matthew McBride (Conneaut).
 
In the 400-meters the Raiders took the top five spots with McBride taking the victory in the 400-Meter dash in a time of 47.70, junior Jared Storm (Barberton) and Campbell finished second and third for All-OAC Honors. Gill along with freshman Haden Gibson (Brookfield) rounded out the scoring in the top five.
 
Mount Union took three of the top four spots in the high jump as Slack won his fourth straight conference title with a mark of 6-feet, 7.5-inches while Hershberger finished runner-up with All-OAC honors and Elijah Cobb (Mansfield / St. Peter's), grabbing fourth place.
 
Brody Coleman (Knox, Pa. / Keystone) won the triple jump his fifth straight conference title in the event with 44-feet 9-inches. Slack finished the runner-up earning All-OAC honors as well in the triple jump with a jump of 43-feet 6.5-inches.
 
Picking up All-OAC honors in the top three of their events was the 4x100-Meter relay finished second consisting of seniors Zach Munchick (Westfield Center / Cloverleaf), Brandon Ransom (Lewis Center / Olentangy Orange), Gill and junior Andrew McVicker (Dover) finished runner-up for All-OAC honors, senior Carson Troyer (Sugarcreek / Garaway) took third in the 110-meter hurdles, McVicker also picked up All-OAC honors in the 100-meters with a third place.