Track coach impressed with weekend performances

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The CMU women’s track and field team beat a number of Mid-American Conference opponents and a few non-conference opponents on Saturday to win the BGSU Challenge with 135.5 points.

The men’s team traveled to Eastern Michigan University on Friday and went 2-1, defeating Detroit and Oakland, but falling to Mid-American Conference rival and host Eastern Michigan.

“I was definitely impressed with the way that both teams competed,” said coach Willie Randolph. “They competed really well on both sides.”

Randolph and his entire coaching staff attended both the men’s meet on Friday and the women’s meet the following day.

Randolph said the standout performer of the weekend was senior Erika Schroll. Schroll won the high jump competition with a career-best jump, clearing 5 feet, 11 and 1/4 inches.

Schroll improved on her NCAA provisional qualifying mark while competing on turf, which was no small task, Randolph said.

“Jumping on turf obviously isn’t ideal for an athlete to be jumping on,” he said. “You can’t jump as high as you would like to, so it was really good to see that young lady refocus and get it done.”

Randolph said he was also impressed with junior Raeanne Lohner, who earned a provisional mark in the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 57 seconds, finishing second overall.

Senior Sarah Squires just missed a provisional mark in the 3000-meter dash. Squires ran five laps of the race with one shoe on.

“A lot of her teammates were taking pictures and came and congratulated her,” Randolph said. “Because she still ran a good time with one shoe on.”

On the men’s side, freshman Kevin Bacon finished second on the long jump with a jump of 22 feet, 11 and 1/4 inches, and the high jump with a height of 6 feet, 3/4 inches.

“It speaks volumes about someone that can come out and perform that well for the first time,” Randolph said. “We’re really excited about him.”

Senior Marcus Breidinger cleared 16 feet and won the pole vault competition for the second week in a row. Randolph said the men were promising for the most part, other than a few mistakes that he said he hopes to work on this week in practice.

“We just need to work on execution this week,” he said. “We need to get ready to compete. We need to work on our intensity level.”

The men’s team will be in action again next weekend when they travel to Grand Valley State University for the Grand Valley Big Meet. The women travel to the University of Michigan for the Red Simmons Invitational.