RECAP: Chippewas claim no first-place finishes during Day 1 of MAC Indoor Championships
Junior thrower Cole Walderzak readies a throw Friday at the Jack Skoog Indoor Track for the MAC Indoor Track Championships.
It was a busy first day of competition for the host team during the 2015 Mid-American Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships held at the Jack Skoog Indoor Track.
A total of 12 women’s teams and five men’s teams sent representatives from various MAC schools to the first half of the two-day event.
Mark Guthrie, director of Central Michigan University track and field said earlier in the week he did not expect either of CMU's teams to compete for a team title. Despite this, Guthrie said he was proud of his team’s effort on Friday.
“We had a good day,” Guthrie said. “We had more good than bad. For a young team, I’m pretty pleased with them.”
The Chippewas did not claim any first-place finishes on the day.
However, sophomore Kylee Dobbelaere finished in second place in the weight throw with a distance of 16.6 meters.
Chippewas freshmen April Micheaux and Kyla Walton placed ninth and tenth place respectively in the pentathlon event. Micheaux finished with a mark of 9.05 in the 60-meter hurdles. Walton finished the same event with a mark of 9.61.
Overall the women finished the day in ninth-place with 8.75 total points.
On the men’s side, the Chippewas finished in fourth place with 12 points overall.
Sophomore Silas DeKalita finished in fourth-place in the 5,000-meter run with a final time of 14:35.71, earning his team four points. In the same race, junior Nate Ghena finished in fifth-place with a time of 14:40.29, grabbing another two points for CMU.
In the weight throw competition, junior Cole Walderzak gained four points en route to a fourth-place finish. He had a toss of 19.94 meters. Sophomore Dylan Banagis finished in fifth-place with a distance of 19.12 meters.
Both Walderzak and Banagis achieved personal bests in the category, which came as somewhat of a surprise to Guthrie.
“We had more points (in weight throw) than we were supposed to have,” Guthrie said. “You’re in conference, you’re in a major event and you have a personal best-that’s what we have been talking about."
Guthrie said those who struggled through the competition will have to learn from their mistakes in order to put themselves in a better position on Saturday.
The second day of competition will begin at 9:45 a.m. Saturday beginning with the 60-meter hurdles competition.
“Now we have to regroup and get ready for tomorrow and make a big deal out of it,” Guthrie said. “We’re not splitting the atom. We’re running track.”
