O'Brien leads Track & Field on Day 1 of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships by advancing to 1,500 final

MARIETTA - Three-time national champion and eight-time All-American Jimmy O'Brien led the Ohio Northern track & field team on Day 1 of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championship on Thursday by advancing to Saturday's 1,500-meter run final.

O'Brien advanced to the finals on Saturday at 1:20 pm by finishing second in Heat 1 in 3:54.48. Heat 2 proved to be the faster of the two heats, as all eight runners advanced to Saturday's final to join the top four finishers from Heat 1. 

O'Brien's time was the 10th-fastest qualifying time in the preliminaries.

Starting off the day for the Polar Bears was the men's 4x100-meter relay team comprised of senior Justin Linzy, sophomore Ryan Fleming, sophomore Evan Heyman and freshman Travis Althouse.

The team finished second in Heat 2 in 41.55, but the Polar Bears did not advance as one of the top eight qualifiers to Saturday's finals. Northern was 10th overall but was just .03 seconds out of eighth place.

Dani Noe ran the second-fastest time of her career at 1:02.88 and finished fourth in Heat 3 of the 400-meter hurdles. She ran the 11th-best time in the preliminaries and will not advance to the finals on Saturday.

Noe's fastest career time was last week at North Central (Ill.) when she ran 1:02.50. Today's race was only the second time she has ran sub-1:03.00 over her career.

The men's 4x400-meter relay team of Shane Huntley, Joe Amstutz, Heyman and O'Brien finished fourth in Heat 3 and turned in the 10th fastest time at 3:15.32. The team will not compete in the finals, as the top eight teams advance.

The final ONU athlete to compete on the day was Andy Lammers in the pole vault.

Lammers vaulted a height of 15-7 1/4 which was tied for the eighth-best height of the day. However, after the tiebreaker, Lammers finished out of the top eight in tenth place.

O'Brien and Fleming will be competing tomorrow for the Polar Bears in the 800-meter prelims and the 100-meter prelims, respectively.