Pilling, Loehner lead respective track teams

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Greg Pilling opened his final outdoor season with similar success he earned last spring.

The senior thrower placed second in the discus with a toss of 168 feet in the CMU men’s and women’s track and field teams’ outdoor season opener at Paul Derr Track in Raleigh, N.C.

Both teams opened well in the non-scoring Raleigh Relays despite facing some universities which have already competed in the outdoor season.

Coach Willie Randolph said he was impressed to see how the team responded in their first meet of the season.

“We’re better than just the team coming from up north,” he said. “The biggest surprise was to see how mentally strong we can be when we want to be.”

Junior Raeanne Lohner paced the women with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000-meter run (16 minutes, 50.01 seconds). Sophomore Stephanie Hurley ran the 400 in 56.59 and finished 13th. Hurley was one-hundredth of a second off her personal best.

“It feels really good because it took all of last season for me to get where I’m at now,” Hurley said.

Hurley said she will do basic fundamental work during practice to improve on her 400 time.

“I need to work on my turnover speed because I have a lot of strength to get me to run that fast without getting tired,” she said.

MEN

The men were able to keep pace with the women this weekend, and Pilling had something to do with that.

Aside from Pilling’s 168-foot toss, freshman Alex Rose placed fourth in the discus with a toss of 167-5 to open his outdoor career.

Rose said there is a perk to being teammates with Pilling.

“It was a great help to watch Greg Pilling because he’s an All-American and he’s on my team and I can watch his technique,” he said. “… I need to improve a lot on my technique to
be able to compete with the other throwers in the conference.”

Other notable finishes for the Chippewas included sophomore Kevin Bacon, who placed ninth in the long jump at 23-4 3/4.

The women’s relay team of juniors Shanaye Carr, Jordan Dunn, Brittnee Shreve and sophomore Dierra Riley finished fifth in the 4×100-meter relay (46.31). That same relay team finished third in the 4×200-meter relay with a time of 1:38.91, something that caught Randolph’s attention.

“For them to stay focused and get themselves ready to go, that showed us a lot about the future of the Central Michigan track and tield program,” Randolph said.