Two track and field records set over the weekend
A couple of Central Michigan men’s track and field athletes entered the weekend eyeing a couple records.
Two reached those goals.
At the Penn State National Saturday, senior multi-event athlete Josh Kettlewell won the seven-event heptathlon with a career-high score of 5,673, which broke a CMU 13-year record.
“He set the multi record, that’s for sure,” assistant coach Matt Kaczor said. “With all the work he’s put in, it’s nice to see the rewards.”
The score was 300 points higher than both the runner-ups Saturday, and the previous CMU record. The record was set in 1998 by Nathan Parker.
Kettlewell won the 60 meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 8.33. He also finished fourth in the 1000 meter run with a time of 2:42. He marked 16-10.75 in the pole vault.
At Indiana, sophomore distance runner Tecumseh Adams also set a school record Saturday.
He finished second place in the 5k event with a time of 13:53.08 in Bloomington, Ind. He said Thursday he was aiming for a sub-fourteen minute race to give him a good chance of qualifying for the NCAA Championship in March.
It was the first 5k under 14 minutes in CMU history.
The 5k automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championship is 13:44. The top-17 runners in the nation are selected. Adams said he will not know for a while his time qualifies.
“My time might make it in,” he said. “I have a pretty good chance. Last year, my time was the final spot (in the championship).”
Coach Kaczor, who traveled with Adams to Indiana, said the drive there was not a problem.
“We try to keep it as simple as possible,” he said. “When we got there, you could see his nerves a little bit about a half-hour before the race, but I just reminded him he’s been training for it.”
Adams said during the race, there was a “rabbit,” a runner who leads and sets the pace. It helped him settle into a pace. He averaged 4:27 per mile.
He said his techniques to stay focused in the race include studying other runners’ shoes and jerseys.
“It really helped me to have the rabbit pull me along,” Adams said. “The last three minutes I was struggling, but I focused on the techniques I talked about before to stay in it.”
Kaczor said the team can do nothing but work harder than it has before.
“You just got to keep moving forward,” he said. “Like I told Tec, ‘You won and you have a day to celebrate, then it’s back to work.’ When you run well like that, people know you the next time you run, you have to keep working.”
