SPRINGFIELD, Ohio -- The Kenyon College men's track and field team started their 2022-23 season by competing in the Tiger Collegiate Opener, an unscored indoor track and field meet hosted by Wittenberg University. The Owls competed in four event finals on Saturday, and sophomore Tapiwa Gono Phiri led the way with a pair of fourth-place finishes.

Gono Phiri finished fourth in the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes, two events in which he holds Kenyon records. In the 60-meter dash, the sophomore crossed the finish line in 7.04 seconds, just 0.01 seconds behind the third-place finisher. The time was also just 0.02 seconds short of his program-best 7.02 indoor mark, which he set on Feb. 26, 2022.

At 200 meters, Gono Phiri led a group of five Owls and finished fourth with a time of 22.83. Collin Witt, a junior, finished in 18th place after clocking a 23.55, while sophomore Emmanuel Makelele was not far behind in 26th, running a 23.76. Two first-year runners rounded out the Kenyon contingent in the 200-meter dash as Joshua Grevillee (24.87) and Harshal Rukhaiyar (27.15) finished 47th and 56th, respectively.

Kenyon's next-best finish came in the long jump. Ezekiel Kiwanuka, a first-year, earned a 10th-place finish after tallying a 6.09-meter leap. His jump distance tied for the ninth-best mark in the event.

Witt notched a 12th-place finish in the 400-meter dash, the only other final in which the Owls competed. Witt crossed the finish line in 51.80, a personal best. Greville clocked a 54.34 to finish 21st and round out the Kenyon competitors.