Men's track show progress at Simmons-Harvey Invitational

The Men's track and field team posted another week of solid marks in Ann Arbor with three Mid-American Conference qualifying times at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational.

CMU faced tough competition in the form of Michigan.

The Wolverines dominated the throwing events and were a difficult adversary in the sprints. The Chippewas have been sharpening their skills in competitive environments the last few weeks, using this atmosphere to their advantage.

"This meet helped us tremendously confidence wise," said director of track and field Willie Randolph. "We talked about the mental component of an athlete working together with the physical component, and mentally. I think we are definitely moving in the right direction, and physically getting stronger as the weeks and months go by."

Junior Cory Noeker posted a Mid-American Conference qualifying time in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.28. Also qualifying were sophomores Kyle Stacks, who placed first in the 1 mile run with a time of 4:11.16, and Ethan Lievense, who placed second in the 3000m run with a time of 8:28.29.

Stacks and Lievense also set personal records with their races.

Senior Nathan Sanchez won the 800m run, clocking in at 1:57.91. Also winning in his event was senior Renaldo Powell, who placed first in the 60m hurdles.

The CMU sprinters had a decent night with junior Ross Parsons taking fourth in the 200m dash. Junior Clay Holman also placed fourth but in the 400m dash.

Additionally, the Chippewas jumping and vaulting squad had several top placers. Freshman Matt Mueller took third in the high jump with a height of 6 feet 04.75 inches, edging close to the second place finisher. Sophomore Nathan Hop, coming off a good week at the CMU Open, placed third in the pole vault with a height of 15 feet 1.5 inches. Furthermore, junior Michael Johnson placed third in the triple jump with a distance of 43 feet 7.75 inches.

CMU is looking to continue to improve week after week. With a limited amount of time to work with, the Chippewas runners have been coached to use each meet to remain building progress.

"We need to answer the question 'Will the athletes be ready when it's time to hit it on all cylinders as a team?', that in itself hopefully, will show up this weekend when we go to Grand Valley," Randolph said. "It will be the first time together as an entire team and we'll see exactly comes out of that"