MANSFIELD — The Mansfield Police Department showed its brawn last weekend with two officers winning gold and silver medals at the Police and Fire Games.
Officers Freeman Nixon and Paul Webb placed 1st and 2nd respectively in the pump-and-run event.
In this event, competitors must bench press their body weight as many times as they can before run five kilometers.
“Every rep you do, knocks five seconds off your run,” Nixon said. “You can only do 30 reps.”
Nixon benched his body weight of 235 pounds 29 times to knock off more than 2.5 minuets. Webb benched his body weight of 165, 19 times. His run was eight minuets, 41 seconds.
“I just like to compete,” Nixon said. “It was good competition and fun.”
Webb, who won the 5k portion of the event, said having two officers perform well was a feather in the department’s cap.
“I think it’s pretty awesome. Nixon is obviously pretty strong but he can run really well for a guy who is that big. He was by far the strongest, and then it was pretty cool I got the 5k part,” Webb said. “I think it’s pretty cool to represent the department. Obviously it was pretty cool to be that good at that event.
“People were saying, ‘Man, the Mansfield guys look pretty good.'”
The two officers are former student athletes at the collegiate level.
“From the organization perspective, we appreciate having both of these officers. They perform well in the community and are both community-minded,” Chief Ken Coontz said. “When they succeed, the community succeeds and it brings positive attention to Mansfield.”
Nixon went to Ashland University to play tight end for the football team and pitch for the Eagles baseball team. The dual-sport athlete spoke with the Chicago Cubs over the phone ahead of the draft, then tore his shoulder, he said.
Webb ran cross country at Shawnee State University. His school was ranked 11th in the NAIA his senior year.
