Men get several Top 10 finishes at GVSU, Akron
The Central Michigan men’s track and field team finished up another weekend of competition at two different meets on Saturday.
The majority of the team traveled to Allendale to compete in Grand Valley State’s Big Meet, while the throwers were in Akron, Ohio, to compete in the Akron Invitational.
On Saturday, the second of the two days of competition, the Chippewas had some good performances in multiple areas. Most notably, freshman Brett Kuhn took eighth in the long jump with a jump of 21 feet, 8 1/4 inches and Joshua Kettlewell who took fourth in the pole vault after he cleared 15 feet, 9 inches.
The throwers had another good day in Akron, led by junior Kevin Mays, who threw a career best 65-09 feet, which was good enough for fourth in the gold division.
“Our throwers have been great all season,” said director of track and field and cross country Willie Randolph. “Kevin is one of our guys who have been working very hard, and it’s starting to pay off, his performance was the highlight of our weekend.”
Fellow junior Ryan McCullough took fourth in the blue division with a throw of 58-10.25. Sophomore Alex Rose also had a solid day, finishing eighth in the shotput a day after taking second in the discus.
Friday was a better day of competition for the Chippewas at Grand Valley. Randolph was pleased with the performances of some of the underclassmen, most notably sophomore Renaldo Powell and freshman Ross Parsons.
Powell finished tied for sixth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.22 seconds. Parsons continued to perform well, finishing eighth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.04 seconds.
Junior Kevin Bacon took eighth in the long jump with a jump of 22-04.25 feet.
“Overall, I think we had a good weekend,” Randolph said. “I like the way our team is going — we just need to remain focused and keep improving for the MAC championships in a couple weeks.”
That focus will be key next week as only one meet remains before the conference championships. CMU will host the Jack Skoog Meet at the Jack Skoog Indoor Track on Friday.
