WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein University track and field program is gearing up for an anticipated season of competition in 2016, looking to take another leap under the direction of second-year head coach Dara Ford.

Ford, 31, arrived to Otterbein in 2013 after a successful stretch as the coach at John Carroll University. She and her athletes will be looking to reach another level within the always challenging Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), where the women's team finished second last year, both indoor and outdoor, while the men were fourth at both meets.

This season, the women have been narrowly picked by the league coaches to finish atop the OAC indoor standings, over reigning champion Mount Union, while the men have been predicted fourth. Click HERE to view both preseason polls.

The program welcomes many new faces for the 2016 campaign with the roster featuring approximately half returnees and the other half as newcomers. Numbers have continued to grow, with the roster expected to reach approximately 80 student-athletes this season.

"It will certainly be an adventure with a lot of new kids, but it was neat to see how this group started coming together throughout the fall," Ford said. "They are excited to get out there and compete. We were able to shake the rust off at our first meet and see some of that work from the fall begin to pay off."

The group debuted at the Tiffin Alumni Open on December 5, a meet that was not technically scored but did provide the coaching staff a chance to look at what this year's squad might look like. The women's side has high expectations after its fifth-place result at the All-Ohio and runner-up finish at OAC's last year, looking to officially close the gap on the University of Mount Union. The Cards return 101.5 of 123.5 points scored at last year's indoor meet.

"We think it will at least be a meet this year,"  Ford said in reference to the recent dominance by Mount Union. "It's only been a battle for second in the past but we return more points than any other team. We have some freshmen that can contribute right away and we will rely heavily on the distance events to get us towards that next level."

The women return multiple standouts, headlined by All-American sprinter Shyla Cummings and national qualifiers Taylor Lindsey and Jenna D'Errico in the pole vault. Cummings, a sophomore, set school records in the 60 meters, 100 meters and 200 meters last fall en route to ultimately finishing seventh nationally in the 200. She was the fastest female freshman in all of NCAA Division III and will look to dominate the conference yet again.

 

Lindsey, a three-time national qualifier and reigning OAC champion, set a new school record in the pole vault as a junior at 12-5 ½. D'Errico, now in her third season, matched Lindsey's indoor record of 12-2 in the vault last winter and also qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships, but was unfortunately unable to compete due to injury.

"We are returning fairly healthy," Ford said of her recent national qualifiers. "We will see what happens with them and possibly a few other kids as well. Our women's relays during outdoor season will certainly have a shot to make some noise at the national level because of solid depth. We are just excited to get going and see what plays out."

Senior Victoria Konkle returns after a handful of All-OAC performances last year, including second-place results in the 1,000 meters (indoor) and 1,500-meter run during outdoor season. Kierra Lathrop (steeplechase), Amanda Frey (400 hurdles) and, as Ford mentioned, several other females will look to help pace the team throughout both winter and spring.

"We are still working on filling in some gaps with a few field events, but this is going to be the best chance we have had in years to win the conference meet," Ford explained. "I'm confident it will at least be a competition with Mount Union this time around."

Freshman Claire Lamb, recently named OAC Runner of the Year in cross country, will now work towards helping the team on the track after a stellar fall season.

The men's side will also look to maintain a spot in the top half of the OAC, but will need to replace some key departures after losing 43 of their 83 points scored at last year's indoor meet. The most notable hole was left by Brandon Bruner, who won OAC titles in the long jump, 100-meter dash and as part of the national-qualifying 4x1 relay team.

"It was a big loss graduating Brandon because he represented a lot of points on last year's team,' Ford said. "We lost a couple other key guys as well, so it's definitely going to take some stepping up from others to maintain fourth place within the conference.  We can probably score in the distance events a bit more though, which is something we didn't necessarily have last year."

Back to help lead the way are a handful of upperclassmen in sprinters Turner Jones, John Pyles and Charles Grayson, along with distance runners Richie Gopel and Cameron Posner. In the field events, Chris Saylor could contend for nationals in the pole vault while Zach Dunlap finished second in the discus at last year's OAC meet. He also holds the school record in the hammer throw.

Pyles and Jones made up half of the record-setting 4x1 team last year that broke a school record, won the conference and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Jones finished one-tenth of a second behind Bruner last year at OAC's in the 100-meter dash and Pyles, who was the starting running back on the football team this fall, should continue his contributions in a variety of areas.

In addition to Pyles, as many as six or seven other football players are expected to join the squad and compete. Included in the group is wide receiver Julian Lowe and linebacker Drew Ervin, both of whom earned All-OAC honors on the gridiron.

"I'm definitely interested to see what kind of contributions some football players can provide," Ford said. "These guys are picking up the track spikes again and, depending on how they adapt, we could have some diamonds in the rough that we weren't expecting."

A few of them could contribute on the relay teams, which have the potential to make some noise as the year progresses. Ian Kellogg, recently voted OAC and All-Ohio Freshman of the Year in cross country, hopes to carry over his success from the fall while fellow newcomers Trevor Dilley and Greg Smith could add to the distance mix as well.

The Cardinals will hit the ground running come Saturday, Jan. 16 when they host the Otterbein Invitational inside the Clements Recreation Center.