Massillon product Brandon Shade arrived to Otterbein in the fall of 2015 and was actually a dual-sport athlete for one year, lacing up on the football gridiron at wide receiver before taking his talents to the track.

He eventually decided to focus solely on track moving forward, running in 71 career meets and securing a list of awards. Shade was an 8x All-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) performer and also corralled six All-Ohio medals, both a result of finishing in the top three of an event. He also earned a handful of USTFCCCA All-Region honors.

Shade qualified for his first NCAA meet as a sophomore in 2017, making the cut in the 110-meter hurdles and heading the The SPIRE Institute in Cleveland. He unfortunately took 15th place and did not advance out of the prelims.

Shade continued working and made it back to the big stage as a senior, where the NCAA Championships were fittingly held once again at SPIRE. This time, he took sixth in the prelims and comfortably advanced to Saturday’s final.

In a wildly-competitive race that actually featured four OAC runners in the nine-man field, Shade broke from lane three and gained ground in the middle of the straightaway. He eventually posted 14.56 to claim seventh in the nation, punctuating his career with All-American honors.