Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
MAC Championships
Gersham and Karanja Win MAC Titles
5/15/2009 9:13:51 PM | Men's Track & Field
Gersham and Karanja each win first MAC outdoor championship title
Day Two Photo Gallery
Day One Results
Day One Photo Gallery
AKRON, Ohio-Seniors Gerald Gersham (Southfield, Mich.-Southfield) and Josh Karanja (Ottawa, Canada-Nepean) each picked up a Mid-American Conference Championship title on day two of the three day MAC Outdoor Championship Friday, May 15. The Eagles sit in second place with 55 points behind the host institution the University of Akron, which has 72 points. Sitting in third is
Gersham picked up the Eagles' second MAC victory of the meet, as senior Josh Perrin (Hillsdale, Mich.-Hillsdale) won the 10,000 meters on Thursday, May 14. Gersham threw 56-10.00 on his first of six throws, fouling out on his five remaining tosses, but held off the field, winning by well over a foot. The win was Gersham's first MAC Championship title in any event, and his toss was a season-best and NCAA Regional qualifying mark, a 10-inch improvement. Earlier in the day, Gersham also picked up a point in the hammer throw by placing eighth with a toss of 166-07.
Karanja picked up his first career MAC outdoor title in the last event on day two, winning the steeplechase in an NCAA Regional time of 8:57.65. His season-best time was not only an NCAA mark but it broke the Lee Jackson Field mark of 8:59.67 that had been held by EMU's Clint Verran since 1998.
The Eagles added six more points in the shot put as Jarid Pearson (Walled Lake, Mich.-Western) took the bronze medal in the event, throwing a season-best mark of 52-10.75 on the first throw of the finals, his fourth toss overall. They too added three more as Curtis Vollmar (Grand Blanc, Mich.-Grand Blanc) took sixth in the steeplechase with a time of 9:27.29.
Also finishing third for the Green and White was sophomore Kevin Lanier's (White Lake, Mich.-Lakeland) gruelling two-day decathlon came to an end. His point total of 6,681 was a collegiate-best and ranks him seventh in school history. Not only did he do ten events in two days as part of the decathlon, but he competed in and qualified in two open events, the 110 and 400-meter hurdles. In the 110-meter high hurdles, he is seeded with the fourth-fastest time of 14.75 seconds. In the intermediate hurdles, he ran the fifth-best time in the preliminary round, 54.24 seconds.
In the long jump junior Xavier Clais (Paris, France) picked up a fifth-place finish to add four more points to the Eagles' second-day total. His mark of 23-03.50 was a collegiate-best for the Frenchman.
With only a handful of events under their belts, the Eagles will have several athletes competing in the finals on Saturday.
In the 100-meter dash, Clint Allen (Muskegon, Mich.-Orchard View) will look to defend his title from 2008, running the eighth-fastest time in the prelims. In the 200, Koleon Prescott (Oakland, Calif.-Merritt College) and Ackeem Forde (Haynesville, Barbados-Cambridge & Parry) ran identical times of 21.44 seconds to advance to the finals tomorrow. Prescott won his heat to advance autimatically while Forde was selected based on his time.
Nate Blackwell (Kalamazoo, Mich.-Central) will be the top seed in the 400-meter dash finals, runnning 47.65 seconds to qualify. Forde ran 48.25 seconds and is the sixth-best time entering the finals.
In the 800-meter run, Blake Figgins (Detroit, Mich.-Mumford-Missouri) will be seeded with fastest time entering the finals as he won his heat with a time of 1:52.26. David Brent (Monroe, Mich.-St. Mary's Catholic) and Vollmar will all see time in the 800 finals.
In the 1,500-meter run Karanja, Brent and Neal Naughton (Walled Lake, Mich.-Western) will all fight for top-eight positions in tomorrow's final.
The third and final day of competition will begins Saturday, May 16 at noon with the men's high jump, women's discus and women's triple jump. The first running event is the 4x100-meter relay, starting at 2:00 pm.
