April 5, 2008

ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio football squad completed its winter workouts last month and boasted 43 student-athletes who earned one of five different weightlifting honors during their winter training period. It marks the third straight season that Ohio has had at least 35 student-athletes accomplish this honor. The total also represents an increase of 10 student-athletes who accomplished that feat last summer.

Fullbacks Mitch Morsillo (Moon, Pa.) and Joel Scipio (Hilliard, Ohio) combined with defensive tackle John Flowers (Lancaster, Ohio) to earn Super Iron Bobcat honors, an honor that is given by Ohio's Director of Strength and Conditioning Sonny Sano who implemented the current system in 2001. The award, the highest honor an Ohio player can earn in the weight room, is based on maximum efforts on four lifts - the bench press, the squat, the power clean and the jerk.

Morsillo posted a bench press of 416 pounds, a squat of 507, a power clean of 323 and a jerk of 323. Scipio had a bench press of 384, a squat of 537, a power clean of 340 and a jerk of 340. Flowers benched 396, squatted 581, posted a power clean of 350 and jerked 330.

The rest of the awards included 14 Bobcat Award winners, 15 Green Award winners and 11 White Award winners.

In addition to the honors, three positional records fell this past winter, two of which came in the vertical jump. Josh Leuck (Omaha, Neb.) is now Ohio's offensive line record holder in that category (30.5 inches), while Donte Harden (Erie, Pa.) now holds the program's running backs record (40.5 inches). Ernie Hodge (Dublin, Va.) also broke the school's defensive tackle record with a jerk of 384 pounds.

Other outstanding performances noted by Coach Sano:

WR Taylor Price - Back Squat 492

OG Gary Schussler - Bench Press 413, Back Squat 553

C/OG David White - Back Squat 602, Clean 330

C Tommy Stuck - Bench Press 396, Back Squat 454, Clean 320

DE Darnell Harris - Bench Press 396

DT Marcellis Williamson - Bench Press 396, Jerk 328

OLB Michael Brown - Back Squat 528

OLB Chris Hall - Back Squat 526

OLB Jay Edwards - Bench Press 394

S Kevin Culver - Bench Press 362, Back Squat 476, Clean 301

DB Ian Elmore - Back Squat 471

CB Julian Posey - Back Squat 461, Vertical Jump 40

The Bobcats will participate in their fourth practice of the spring season Monday at 3:30 p.m. in Peden Stadium. The annual Green & White game will be held on Saturday, April 26 at 2 p.m.