Eastern Michigan University’s men’s track and field team participated in its first competition of 2014 in the EMU Triangular on Jan. 10.
The Eagles dominated the home meet with a decided victory over the University of Detroit Mercy and Oakland University. The Green and White racked up 155 points, followed by Detroit (69) and Oakland (42) claiming victories in 13 of 14 events, only giving up first place wins in the 3000 meter run.
The wins for Eastern began with redshirt senior Teron Turner setting a personal best in the weight throw with an 18.98 meter/62-foot 3.75 inch launch. Anthony Jones claimed second-place in the weight throw event (17.87 meters/58 feet 7.5 inches).
In the shot-put, freshman Quinn Levering threw an impressive 16.14 meters/52-feet 11.50 inches for a first. Travis Harris and Ryan McNulty rounded out the top three for the evening with throws of 16.04 meters/52-feet 7.5 inches and 15.38 meters/50 feet 5.5 inches respectively.
In addition to the exciting performances in the throwing area, senior Max Babits broke his own EMU school record in the pole vault, clearing 5.4 meters/17 feet 9 inches. The Eagles also claimed second and third place in the pole vault as juniors Dylan Stites and Solomon Ijah both vaulted 4.55 meters/14 feet 11 inches.
“We are very happy for Max to start the 2014 season with a school record-setting performance,” EMU coach John Goodridge said. “Max is well on his way to an exciting year.”
The Green and White dominated the jumps in the field events with 1-2-3 wins in each event. Freshman Tyler Brown took first in the long jump as he leapt 7.02 meters/23 feet and Aaron Benton flew over the high jump at 2.05 meters/6 feet 8 inches. The Eagles’ current triple jump record-holder Donald Scott once again dominated in the event with a jump of 15.02 meters/49 feet 3.5 inches.
In the track events, EMU’s Willy Fink and Cameron Trinh finished almost neck and neck to take first and second-place finishes with times of 4:15.60 and 4:15.77 respectively. In another close race, Scott Bradley overtook teammate Ian Hancke in the final strides of the 800-meter run finishing with a first place time of 1:55.20. Hancke clocked in at 1:55.57.
In the 400-meter dash, sophomore Matthew Williams brought home first with a time of 49.12.
Cameron Bolton dashed for two first place wins with a personal-best of 6.86 in the 60-meter dash and a time of 21.66 in the 200-meter dash.
The 4×400 meter relay team of Jeff Elam, Mason Waynes, Chris Scott and Josh George finished off the evening’s wins with a first place finish of 3:22.91. This was a four-second margin of victory over Detroit Mercy.
“The staff is encouraged by our opening meet results but we certainly have a lot of work ahead,” Goodridge said.
The Eagles will next be running for more victories on Jan. 18 at the Simmons/Harvey Invitational at the University of Michigan.
