O’Neil sets record for women’s mile at “The Big Meet”
A Central Michigan women’s track record time of 4:49.13 by junior Megan O’Neil highlighted CMU's performance at “The Big Meet” in Allendale on Friday.
O’Neil is one-third of the trio of outdoor distance runners Head Coach Mark Guthrie referred to as his “Big Three.”
The other two are senior Kelly Schubert, who took fourth in the 5000 meter with a career-best 17:07.83, and Kirsten Olling. Olling has yet to participate in any indoor meet.
“I can see any one of these women breaking records before the season’s over,” Guthrie said before the season began.
O’Neil took sixth place in the mile. Her record time broke the 4:50.5 mark set by Raeanne Lohner in 2010.
From a field of 40 teams, the men’s team took fifth with a score of 26.5. Out of 53 teams, while the women finished sixth with 33 points.
The lone first place of the night for the men came from sophomore Benjamin Hayes, who ran a 47.98 to win the men’s 400-meter dash. Junior Erick Huertas came in seventh with a 48.61-second run.
Coming just short of another first place finish was junior Ali Taha, who finished second in the long jump with 6.89 meters.
Also taking second place was freshman Logan Targgart with an 18.56 toss in the weight throw open, just .04 meters short of first place. His senior counterpart, Dylan Banagis, took second in the more prestigious weight throw invite with a 20.86 throw. Both of those are career marks.
Targgart was part of the shot put invite, finishing ninth with a 15.95 toss. That would have placed him third in the shot put open.
Also coming in sixth place was senior Melvin Harris, leaping 2 meters in the high jump invite, just .10 meters short of first.
Junior Scott Cousino, Huertas, and Hayes were joined by freshman Taylor Sebben in the 4x400 meter relay invite. The squad finished fourth out of 15 with 3:14.75.
Participating in the women’s 4x400 relay was sophomore Samantha Cuneo, junior Kyla Walton, and seniors Michaela Bundy and Kelsey Ross. They finished third with a time of 3:48.86.
Freshman Nadia Williams finished third in the 200 with a 24.76 and second in the long jump with 5.60 meters.
Senior Kylee Dobbelaere was inches off a career-best in the women’s weight throw invite with 18.08.
For the women’s pole vault, junior Rebekah Petty tied for third place with a score of 3.66 meters.
Freshman Mikaela Grant took second in the women’s long jump with 5.65 meters. Of the 32 athletes who participated in the event, six were from CMU.
Freshman Ja’la Taylor took second place in the triple jump with a score of 11.90, .02 meters short of first place.
The two teams will return to Allendale Friday, Feb. 17 for the Grand Valley Tune-Up at 1 p.m. That’ll be the first of the final two meets before the indoor MAC Championships on Feb. 24th.
