Eastern Michigan’s men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Tennessee Relays in Knoxville, Tenn. from April 11-13. Derek Ziegenfuss had the best performance from both teams after he shattered EMU’s school record in the javelin throw event on day two of the relays.
While his 69.79-meter finish in the event only landed in sixth place for that event, it beat the previous school record by 0.89-meter and was the second-best performance in the javelin throw by a MAC athlete this season. While Ziegenfus had a record-setting outing at the relays, the rest of the men’s team was not able to replicate his performance.
The Eagles best finish outside of Ziegenfus came from Alex Jacobs, who won the only event for the men’s team with his first-place finish in the pole vault event with a 5.00-meter performance. Tyler Underwood had two top-five finishes in two separate events over the last two days of the relays.
He first finished in fourth place in the 400-meter event with a time of 47.06 seconds, then followed that with a second place finish in the 200-meter event with a time of 21.01, a career-best for Underwood.
While the men’s team experienced some impressive highs, the women’s team wasn’t able to do so. They did not win any event over the three days of the relays, despite coming very close in several events. On day two of the relays, Micah Johnston had the best finish for the women’s team with her second place finish in the 200-meter event with a time of 23.93 seconds. That is a career best for her.
Johnston was far from finished, though, as she would also finish third place in the 400-meter event with a time of 54.06 seconds. Also a career best for her.
The only other top-five finishes for the Eagles came on the final day of the relays in the 4x100-meter event when the team of Kolby Ganther, Jessica Harris, Johnston and Brittni Mason finished in fourth place with a time of 45.53 seconds.
John Goodridge and Sue Parks were not made available for comment after the events.
The women’s team will come home and rest for a few days before starting a long road trip as they will take part in three separate events starting on April 18 with the Don Kleinow Memorial Invitational in Adrian, Michigan, the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California and the Mt. SAC Relays in Torrance, California.
The men’s next event will be on April 25 when they take part in the Hillsdale Gina Relays in Hillsdale, Michigan.
