Johnson Sets New Rio Women’s Indoor Record, RedStorm Men Place Second at Capital

BEXLEY, Ohio – Clarissa Johnson rewrote the Rio Grande record books and Kyle Sanborn took top honors in the men’s 800-meter run, as the RedStorm track and field team put together an impressive showing at the Capital Classic hosted by Capital University on Saturday.

Johnson, a freshman from Hillsboro, Ohio, placed second in the women’s 500-meter run with a time of 1:21.16, breaking the previous school indoor record of 1:22.49 set by Leslie Bales in 1998.

Sanborn, a sophomore from Dover, OH, registered a time of 1:57.66 en route to his top honor.

One other first place finish was accomplished for the RedStorm, as the freshman quartet of Austin Wilson (Gallipolis, OH), Charlie Ronan (Cincinnati, OH), Austin Moore (Swedesboro, NJ) and Nate Kosnich (Pickerington, OH) took top honors in the men’s 4×200-meter relay with a time of 1:33.69.

Team races seemed to be Rio’s specialty on Saturday, as the men finished second in both the 4×400-meter relay and the distance medley with times of 3:32.01 and 11:10.63, respectively.

The 4×400 team was a combination of Moore, Sanborn, senior Joe Taranto (Pickerington, OH) and freshman Floyd Lowry (St. Paris, OH), while the distance medley team consisted of Lowry, Taranto, freshman Dallas Guy (Buffalo, OH) and sophomore Jerrele Lyles (Dublin, OH).

Rio Grande had eight other top-five finishes at the event: Taranto, who finished second in the men’s 1000-meter run with a time of 2:35.95; Ronan, who placed third in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 23.22; senior Kaleb Kimber (Salisbury, NC), who finsihed third in the men’s high jump with a leap of 1.88 meters; freshman Lauren Stacey (Bethel, OH), who placed third in the women’s weight throw with a toss of 13.7 meters; sophomore Lauren Rhoads (Waverly, OH), who finished fourth in the women’s weight throw with a toss of 13.50 meters; Wilson, who placed fourth in the men’s 60-meter dash with a time of 7.1 second. Wilson also finished fifth in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 23.45; and sophomore Carrie Coriell (Lucasville, OH), who placed fifth in the women’s shot put with a toss of 11.19 meters.

Other notable finishes for Rio Grandes included Stacey also placed sixth in the women’s shot put with a throw of 10.98 meters; Moore, who placed sixth in the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 52.58; freshman Nate Goodhart (Kent, OH), who finished sixth in the men’s 5000-meter run with a time of 16:26.48; Guy, who placed seventh in the men’s one-mile run with a time of 9:25.25; freshman Blake Freed (Uhrichsville, OH), who finished seventh in the men’s 5000-meter run with a time of 16:27.65; and freshman McKenzie Coriell (Lucasville, OH), who placed seventh in the women’s long jump with a jump of 4.73 meters.

The Rio Grande men finished the day at second place out of 13 teams, finishing just 13 points behind winner Wilmington College.

The RedStorm women finished eighth out of 14 teams.

Rio Grande returns to action on Friday, March 7, at the Palmetto Classic.