Track teams compete at Red Simmons Invitational

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The CMU men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams will compete together this weekend as they travel to The University of Michigan for the non-scoring Red Simmons Invitational.

The women’s team is coming off its first scored-meet victory in about six years.

Track and field coach Willie Randolph said he expects nothing less this weekend when the women compete against bigger schools such as Michigan and South Florida.

“No matter what venue we go into, we’re going to go in there competing,” Randolph said. “We’re building to be ready for the conference meet. We’re excited about the level of competition.”

Senior Erika Schroll moved up to fifth in the national rankings in the high jump competition.

“She’s a class-act young lady,” Randolph said. “She’s a silent competitor, but her energy is there, and that goes throughout the team.”

Randolph said it is exciting to see an athlete get some national recognition for the program. Schroll, who was never nationally ranked before this year, said it is surprising to be on a national stage.

“It’s kind of weird for me,” she said. “I’ve always kind of flown under the radar. It’s given me a lot to look forward to and a lot of motivation.”

Juniors Shanaye Carr and Jordan Dunn and senior Cara Dukes have earned the highest marks in the women’s track events for CMU, but Randolph said he expects sophomore Dierra Riley to surprise people. Riley, who sat out the first two meets, is expected to compete with Dunn and will be added into the mix this weekend, Randolph said.

The meet in Ann Arbor is non-scoring, but Schroll said her team will come out and compete at a high level.

“Last weekend, we got our hopes up and it lit a fire inside us,” she said.
The field events for the invitational will take place Friday, followed by all track events Saturday.

Men’s team

All-American senior Greg Pilling will compete for the first time in two weeks. Pilling, held out of last week’s meet for training, won the weight throw in the CMU Open.

Randolph said he wanted to see Pilling get extra repetitions last week. Pilling was held out Jan. 15 at EMU because he competed with the Canadian national team in October and his body was tired.

Randolph said the extra reps were all he needed.

“Greg will be ready to go when it counts the most,” he said.
Freshman Kevin Bacon placed second in the high jump and long jump against EMU. Randolph uses him as a runner, also.

“We’ve been training him as a jumper,” Randolph said. “The objective is to balance out the jumping area and the running area.”