Eastern Michigan University’s men’s track and field had six members compete in the SPIRE Invitational. The event took place on Feb. 14-15 in Geneva, Ohio.
On the field the first day, were red shirt senior Teron Turner and sophomore Anthony Jones who finished 12th and 15th respectively in the weight throw. Turner threw for a distance of 17.73 meters/58 feet 2.00 inches, while Jones had a 17.40-meter/57 foot 1.00-inch launch.
Juniors Solomon Ijah and Levi Selvig also competed in the field events placing ninth and 12th respectively in the pole vault. Both Ijah and Selvig cleared the four-meter mark with vaults of 4.30 meters/14 feet 1.50 inches and 4.00 meters/13 feet 1.50 inches respectively.
In the 200m, freshman Tyler Brown dashed just a shade below his personal-best set one week ago at the Meyo Invitational, as he clocked in at 21.55. Brown won his heat by nearly .8 seconds, coming in fourth overall and less than .2 seconds behind the top finisher.
Redshirt junior Harry Dixon also performed just shy of his personal record, finishing eighth with a time in the 5000m of 14:29.90.
In the second day of competition, the Green and White saw many of its team members set personal records as well as Mid-American Conference qualifying marks.
In the 60m hurdles, sophomore Bryce Lindsey was the only Eagle to make it past the preliminary round with a time of 8.19. Lindsey finished 10th in the final heat with a Mid-American Conference Championship qualifying time of 8.32.
Senior Chris Scott represented the Green and White in the 60m dash clocking in at 7.11 for 18th place. Scott also set a personal-best record in the 200m dash with a MAC Championship qualifying time of 21.90.
Four Eagles set qualifying marks for the MAC Championship in the 400m dash. Junior Cameron Bolton claimed the fastest time in the MAC in this even so far in the 2013-14 season with a time of 47.12. Sophomores Mason Waynes, Jason Ervin and Jeff Elam followed Bolton with times of 48.20, 48.49, and 48.51 respectively. Waynes’ performance was a personal-best.
In the middle-distance 800m event, sophomore Scott Bradley narrowly beat out fellow Eagle Josh George. The pair finished 13th and 14th with times of 1:52.93 and 1:52.96 respectively. The time marks a personal-best for Bradley.
Running the mile for the Green and White was senior Grzegorz Kalinowski who placed fifth in the event clocking in at 4:04.14. The Eagles had three harriers qualify for the MAC meet in the 3000m run. Sophomore Willy Fink and red shirt junior Warren Witchell took two spots with their personal-bests of 8:15.17 and 8:15.99 respectively. Junior Cameron Trinh also nabbed a spot with his time of 8:30.49.
Finishing up the action on the track was the 4×400m relay team of Bolton, Waynes, Ervin, and Brown. The foursome took fifth place with a season-best mark of 3:11.64. Brown also competed in the field events and was a top finisher for the Eagles in the long jump with a leap of 6.79 meters/22 feet 3.50 inches. Junior Aaron Dewberry jumped 6.58 meters/21 feet 7.25 inches, landing in the top-20 for his first meet as an Eagle.
Freshman Javion Lee set a personal record in the triple jump. He leapt 14.92 meters/48 feet 11.50 inches, taking the sixth spot in the field. Joining Lee in the top-10 was senior Donald Scott with a ninth-place finish.
In the high jump, both senior Aaron Benton and sophomore James O’Shea cleared a height of 2.03 meters/6 feet 8.00 inches for the Eagles. This earned them both spots to compete in the MAC meet. This jump also marks a personal-best for O’Shea, who has consistently been increasing his marks over the course of the 2013-14 season.
The last personal-best for the Eagles came in the shot put as sophomore Travis Harris threw for a distance of 16.54 meters/54 feet 3.25 inches. The last event of the day was the pole vault, with senior Max Babits coming in first with a jump of 5.23 meters/17 feet 1.75 inches.
“The team once again had a good overall effort with quite a few personal bests,” EMU coach John Goodridge said. “The staff is very pleased with the guy’s consistency. Cameron Bolton excelled in the 400 meters and came back with a strong leg on the 1600 meter relay.”
The Eagles compete next when they take part in the Silverston Invitational on Feb. 22 at the University of Michigan.
