Track teams place second to Eastern Michigan, top Oakland
In the first scored meet of the season, the Central Michigan track and field teams had weaknesses exposed.
CMU’s men (109 points) and women (102 points) placed second at the Eastern Michigan Triangular on Saturday, the second competition of any kind this season for the Chippewas.
Eastern Michigan — ranked second in the Mid-American Conference for the men and first for the women — placed first in the men’s (138 points) and women’s (140 points) competition, leaving Oakland in third place.
“I thought we had more good than bad,” said Head Coach Mark Guthrie. “But they definitely exposed some weaknesses that we had.”
CMU did not place a runner — meaning a runner from the team did not finish in the top three in the event — in the men’s or women’s 60-meter hurdles, the men’s one-mile run, the women’s 400-meter dash or the women’s 3,000-meter run.
“If you are running at 75-80 percent and you are running against people who are running at 99-100 percent, you are totally exposed,” Guthrie said. "It’s you versus them. That’s what we need to work on, the ability to step up and perform."
In total, EMU swept four events and took first and second in an additional six events.
This was CMU’s first meet since coming back to campus after the winter break. Each athlete was given a training program to follow over the holidays.
“We should not have had any letdown over Christmas, hopefully. They should have taken care of themselves. Obviously that was not true,” Guthrie said. “Competition exposes your strengths and your weaknesses. It’s history now, all you can do is learn from it and get better.”
Chippewa victories
It wasn’t all bad for the Chippewas, though.
Junior Tony Armstrong (4.76 meters), sophomore Sam Wagner (4.61 meters) and junior Ryan Vincent (4.46 meters) finished one, two and three — sweeping the men’s pole vault event.
Junior Kylee Dobbelaere won the women’s weight throw with a mark of 18.14 meters, out-throwing the second place finisher by almost four meters. Senior Cole Walderzak won the men’s weight throw with a 21.1-meter mark.
The men’s 4x400-meter relay placed first with a time of 3:15.12, winning the event by only less than three-quarters of a second.
Senior Devene Brown (14.78 meters) and sophomore April Micheaux (12.38 meters) placed first and second respectively in the women’s shot put.
Senior Shaya Wilkerson won the women’s high jump with a mark of 1.69 meters.
Freshman Jake Peister won the men’s triple jump with a mark of 14.58 meters.
Freshman Benjamin Hayes won the men’s 200-meter dash, running the dash in 21.97 seconds.
Freshman Taylor Blake won the men’s 60-meter dash with a time of 6.95 seconds, which was 0.3 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
The next meet for the Chippewas will be a two day event starting Friday at Saginaw State University.
