Area grads Kiesel, Bauer shine at Baldwin Wallce

ADA — The Baldwin Wallace University men's indoor track and field team finished in second place on March 1 at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships at Ohio Northern University. Senior All-OAC thrower Mason Kiesel, a 2021 South Central High School graduate, earned All-OAC honors in the shot put after placing second with a distance of 16.01 meters. In his final season at the NCAA Division III school, Kiesel is finishing strong after a long series of health setbacks. As a seventh-grader in 2016, Kiesel suffered a weightlifting accident and had his thumb surgically repaired twice. In his junior year of high school in 2019, Kiesel was in a car crash and again severely injured his throwing hand that required more surgery, resulting in missing half the football season and parts of track and field. In the fall of 2022, Kiesel was maxing out with weights at a BW team preseason testing practice and his pectoral muscle tore completely off the bone, which required emergency surgery to repair the injury. He missed the entire season for the Yellow Jackets. This indoor season Kiesel is back to full health and competing at a high level for the Jackets. His best throw prior to this past weekend was 15.52 meters. The new mark of 16.01 also puts him eighth on the top BW indoor throws in program history. Kiesel has also qualified for the NCAA Div. III indoor championships, set for March 14-15 at Nazareth University in Rochester, N.Y. WRESTLING Bauer qualifies for NCAAs Remington Bauer, a 2022 Edison graduate, is one of seven Baldwin Wallace University wrestlers to qualify for the NCAA Div. III championships. Bauer, who is an All-Ohio Athletic Conference and two-time Academic All-OAC selection, is competing in his first national championship tournament after taking second at the regional championships. Bauer has a record of 27-8 with 10 major decisions, five technical falls and two pins so far this season. He ranks 34th on the school's all-time wins list with a mark of 81-37. As a senior at Edison in 2021-22, Bauer placed sixth at 157 pounds at the Div. III OHSAA state championships, helping the Chargers to a state runners-up team finish.