Men grab 3 first-place finishes over weekend
The Central Michigan men's track and field team finished up its weekend of competition Saturday with three first place-finishes in Ohio.
Junior jumper Jacob McDonald continued his hot streak, winning the high jump and triple jump. Junior Josh Kettlewell led a trio of Chippewas to an event sweep in the pole vault, clearing 15 feet, 11 inches. Finishing second and third behind Kettlewell were redshirt freshman Tim Reynolds and junior Joseph Jankowski, respectively, with vaults of 14-5 1/4 and 13-11 1/4 feet.
The results were especially encouraging as the athletes competed at Bowling Green State University, the venue where the Mid-American Conference championships will be held Feb. 25 and 26.
“It was good to see our athletes score well there,” said Willie Randolph, director of track and field and cross country. “This should give them an advantage going into MACs, but we still need to make sure we show up when the time comes.”
On Friday, members of the CMU throwers were in action at the Cardinal Invite, hosted by Saginaw Valley State University. The Chippewas dominated the competition, finishing first and second in both the shot put and weight throw.
Sophomore Alex Rose won the shot put with a throw of 55 3/4 feet. Senior John Calvert was one spot behind him with a throw of 54-10 1/4 feet.
In the weight throw, Kevin Mays won with a throw of 62-10 feet and junior Ryan McCullough took second with a throw of 58-8 3/4 feet.
This weekend was just another in the strong start for the throwers, who have been performing well all season.
“There a very focused group of guys, and they know what they need to do to be successful," Randolph said. “I also have to give a lot of credit to coach (John) Ridgway, who is doing a great job with them.“
The weekend proved to be important in allowing the athletes to improve their field event scores, which Randolph says is most important moving forward.
“We are going to continue to focus on moving in the right direction,” Randolph said. "We need to make sure we are putting ourselves in the best position to score when it counts the most.”
The field events will have plenty of practice time in the near future as they will be off next week while the sprinters and hurdlers head to South Bend, Ind., to compete at the Meyo Invitational, hosted by the University of Notre Dame.
