Track teams finish last at rain-soaked WMU

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Windy and rainy weather conditions played a factor at the Jack Shaw Invitational Saturday in Kalamazoo.

The CMU women’s track and field faced Mid-American Conference opponents Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green, finishing in fourth with 62 points. The men’s team faced only EMU, and finished in second with 50 points.

Track and field coach Willie Randolph said the main thing was to get out of Kalamazoo healthy.

“It was more important to get our athletes out of there healthy,” he said. “My main focus was to get in and get some side things done for the athletes.”

Randolph pulled his athletes out of about 80 percent of the events, he said. It helps explain how the women’s team scored 62 points, compared to 225.5 by WMU 154.4 from Eastern, and 140 by Bowling Green.

There were some accomplishments by CMU, however. The relay team of juniors Brittnee Shreve, Jordan Dunn, Shanaye Carr and sophomore Dierra Riley clocked in the 4×100-meter relay at a time of 47.82 seconds, a first-place finish. Junior Alexandra Sisson placed first in the women’s 400 hurdles (1:04.08).

“We teach our athletes to compete and they are going to focus on the task at hand,” he said. “I’m very proud of how are kids competed in those (weather) conditions.”

Men

On the men’s side, Central saw senior Greg Pilling have two first-place finishes. Pilling reached (169-9) in the discus and (178-4) in the hammer throw.

“I was pleased how all things turned out with everything that happened with the weather conditions,” Pilling said. “I was pretty excited to get in a good throw to build off of last week.”

Freshmen Kevin Bacon finished first in the men’s high jump, reaching (22-4 1/2).

Future

Ranodlph said the focus is on the upcoming weeks and, more importantly, the MAC Championships on May 12-15. Despite both teams finishing last this weekend, Randolph is not too concerned.

“We can lose the short little battle, but we want to win the war at the end,” he said. “To do that, we need all of our athletes there at the end of the war.”

Next up for the track and field program is the Sun Angel/Mesa Classic in Tempe, Ariz.