Petro and Jackson Win HCAC Titles at Indoor Championships

ANDERSON, IND. -- The Defiance College men's track and field team culminated a season of hard work by placing in the sixth position at the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship meet at Anderson University on Saturday.

The Yellow Jackets scored 43 points, just 1.5 points behind Bluffton for fifth place (44.5). Rose-Hulman won another HCAC Championship title with 220 points, over 100 points ahead of Anderson, who scored 111 points. Hanover and Manchester rounded out the top four positions at the meet.

The weight throw once again highlighted the day for the Yellow Jackets, as they took the top two spots. Senior Joshua Petro (Ocala, Fla./The Villages) won his second straight conference title in the event with a throw of 16.85 meters (55 feet, 3 inches). Teammate Javier Castillo (Nogales, Ariz.) finished right on Petro's tail in the second position, with a personal-best throw of 16.65 meters (54 feet, 8 inches), moving him up to the fourth spot on the all-time list at DC.

Castillo also broke his way onto the podium in the shot put, as his toss of 14.56 meters (47 feet, 9 inches) was also a personal best and slipped him onto the DC all-time list (10th place). Also scoring for the Yellow Jackets in the event was James Baranoski Jr. (Bloomingdale, Mich.) as his throw of 13.27 meters (43 feet, 6 inches) was good enough for the eighth spot at the Championship.

Freshman Vince Jackson (Mason) also became a conference champion on Saturday, as his jump of 1.97 meters (6 feet, 5.5 inches) gave him a conference title in his first ever Championship meet. Jackson also placed 10th in the long jump on Saturday, just two spots away from scoring points in two events in his freshman campaign.

The men's triple jump also saw Defiance bring home points, as Cody Drumm-Turner (Homer, Mich.) came home in the fourth position with a big personal best of 11.94 meters (39 feet, 2 inches). The freshman finished ninth in the 60-meter dash, just one spot away from qualifying for the final in the event.

The Yellow Jackets will return to Anderson again on Saturday, Feb. 24 for the Fred Wilt Invitational, as athletes look to better their marks in attempt to qualify for the NCAA Div. III National Meet. The Fred Wilt Invite is set to begin at 3 p.m.