Beaver Falls, PA –Senior Jacob Mellinger (Leetonia, OH / Crestview) put a cap on his track career, finishing first in the 400 meters with a PAC and Geneva record time of 48.64 seconds on Saturday, April 30 at the 2016 Presidents’ Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Mellinger also competed in the 200 meters, finishing third with a time of 21.89 seconds.
Mellinger's 48.64 time in the men's 400 meters breaks Bill Butler's record from 1927, although technically they ran different events of the same length. At the time Butler, a 1924 Beaver high school graduate and 1927 Geneva College graduate, set the record at that distance, it was actually 440 yards.
Butler graduated from Geneva with records in the 100, 200, 400 meter equivalents. This was the last of his records to be broken – 89 years later. The first record to fall was the 200 – in 1983, 56 years after it was set and the 100 record stood for 77 years – in 2004
Mellinger will compete on Wednesday and Thursday, May 18-19 at the Eastern College Athletic Conference postseason in Westfield, Massachusetts in the men’s 200 and 400 meter events.
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