Ohio State’s NCAA shotput record-holder collected her fourth career national championship Saturday.
Adelaide Aquilla put up an indoor personal best of 19.28 meters to best the field at the championships in Albuquerque, N.M. Nebraska’s Axelina Johansson finished second place with 19.12 meters but no other competitor could so much as touch the 18.50-meter mark.
Aquilla is putting the finishing touches on one of the most decorated track and field careers in OSU history. An Olympian in 2021, she won both the Indoor and Outdoor NCAA titles for shotput. After a runner-up finish in the even at the 2022 Indoor Championships, she had her crown jewel performance at the Outdoor competition, tossing an NCAA record throw of 19.64 meters to reclaim her place atop the collegiate ranks. She’ll have a chance to win a fifth shotput national championship later this year, moving outdoors once again.
“She has really persevered this year, but has never made excuses or retreated from the work,” Ohio State program director Rosalind Joseph said. “She just shows up everyday with the will of a champion and that showed today. I’m so happy for her to close out her stellar career as a national champion.”
Men’s jumper Clarence Foote-Talley had the second best day for Ohio State at the championships, finishing fourth in triple jump with a personal-best distance of 16.58 meters. Jaimie Robinson finished 13th (13.37 meters) in the same event on the women’s side.
The women’s 4×400-meter relay team broke its own program record in Albuquerque as well to finish eighth, clocking in at 3:30.80. Amaya Ugarte finished tied for ninth in women’s high jump, while Shaun Miller Jr. placed 11th on the men’s side. Hayden Tobias added a 10th-place finish in men’s shotput.
Fencing Sends 10 To National Championships
Ten Ohio State fencers will have a shot to compete for national titles at the NCAA Championships March 23-26, hosted by Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.
Both the men and women qualified five athletes, two each in epée and foil with one each in sabre.
Henry Lange and Paul Veltrup will face the field in men’s epée, while Diego Cervantes and Edriss Ndiaye take on the field in foil with Jack Price in sabre. Montserrat Viveros and Yeva Mazur represent the women’s team for epée, along with Alina Lee and Dasha Myroniuk in foil and Julieta Toledo in Sabre.
Viveros and Toledo both made second-team All-American status in last season’s championships, and both earned their third qualification by making this year’s event.
Men’s Lacrosse Smokes Detroit Mercy
Fresh off a tough three-game losing streak against three of the nation’s top seven teams, Ohio State’s men’s lacrosse squad got to regain some confidence with a dominant victory over Detroit Mercy Tuesday.
The Buckeyes won 19-6, getting five goals from attacker Ed Shean with 11 total players etching their names in the scoring column. Goalkeeper Skylar Wahlund also had a strong day in net, making four saves as his team tripled its opponent’s scoring output.
OSU opened the contest on an incredible 14-1 run of goals, taking a 14-2 lead into halftime before taking the chance to play some of the depth of their bench in the second half. Shean’s five goals gave him 19 on the season, doubling anyone else on his team.