Men's Track and Field Edges Out Tough Competition at Notre Dame Invitational

Complete Results

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (EMUEagles.com)—Eastern Michigan University's men's track and field team rose to the occasion at the Notre Dame Invitational, Jan. 24, winning against a competitive field with 120 points. Michigan State finished second with 112 points, followed by Indiana State (80), Purdue (70), Notre Dame (57), and DePaul (26).

"This is certainly a nice win for us," commended Head Coach John Goodridge. "I'm pleased with our overall competitive effort, but we have room for improvement—the team result was not settled until the end. We had a good lead with a few remaining events and Michigan State came back at us. It took the final event, the 4x400m relay, to secure the team victory."

The team may have had to battle to get the best of its in-state opponent, but the Green and White had some outstanding performances to complement the team victory. On the track, Tyler Brown (Findlay, Ohio-Findlay) competed in his first 400m dash since he ran in the championship heat at the IAAF Junior World Championships, July 24. The sophomore two-time Mid-American Conference 400m champion did not disappoint, cutting over three-quarters of a second off his personal record to win in a scorching 46.26 seconds. Brown won by more than a second and a half, and his mark stands as the second-fastest in EMU history, behind only EMU all-time great Clement Chukwu's time of 45.37 seconds. His time is also second-fastest in the NCAA for the 2014-15 season, and is tied for the second-best time in the world for the year. Running alongside Brown was another strong performance, as Matthew Williams (Moreno Valley, Calif.-Vista Del Lago) also ran a personal best for fourth, crossing the line in 47.92 seconds.

Anthony Jones (Sandusky, Ohio-Sandusky), having already reached the pinnacle of achievement in EMU's weight throw record books, extended his school standard even further with a throw of 20.75 meters/68 feet 1-inch. His mark is half a meter farther than his previous record set on Jan. 9. Keith Williams (Sherman, Ill.-Williamsville) made his first appearance of the 2014-15 campaign, posting a personal best of 17.19 meters/56 feet 4-inches to trounce his previous best throw by nearly four feet. Williams also competed in the shot put, placing ninth with a throw of 16.27 feet/53 feet 4.50-inches, while the team was paced by Travis Harris (Walled Lake, Mich.-Walled Lake Central) at 16.82 meters/55 feet 2.50-inches.

The Eagles continued to reap success in the field events, with Donald Scott (Apopka, Fla.-Apopka) winning both the long jump and triple jump. In the long jump, Scott paced the field by nearly a foot with a leap of 24 feet 1-inch, just an inch and a half off his personal record. He went on to handily win the triple jump, setting a Loftus Sports Center track record at 16.19 meters/53 feet 1.50-inches, a margin of victory of almost four feet.

Two more events were contested on the field. In the pole vault, Dylan Stites (Huntsville, Ohio-Indian Lake) matched his personal record of 4.75 meters/15 feet 7-inches for seventh, while Brett Lara (Chesterton, Ind.-Chesterton) placed 11^th. James O'Shea (Toledo, Ohio-St. Johns Jesuit) was the lone competitor for the Green and White in the high jump, taking fourth at 2.00 meters/6 feet 6.75-inches.

Back on the track, the lead Eagle finished no lower than fourth in all of the events. The 60m dash saw two Eagles in the final heat, as Wayne Blanchard (Toledo, Ohio-St. Francis de Sales) and Kevin Snead (Richmond, Va.-George Wythe) took fourth and fifth, respectively. Blanchard paced the team with a sprint of 6.97 seconds, while Snead clocked in at 6.99 seconds in the final heat. In the 200m, Williams took fourth in 21.75 seconds, while a myriad of career marks followed him, including Brandon Bolden (Solon, Ohio-Solon), Pedro Delgado (Southfield, Mich.-Brother Rice), Snead, and Nick James (Troy, Ohio-Troy).

In the 60m hurdles, Solomon Ijah (Murrieta, Calif.-Murrieta Valley) was the only Eagle to qualify into the finals. The redshirt-junior made his extra race count, as he set a career record of 8.15 seconds for third place.

The 600m run saw a huge markdown of times for the competing Eagles, as they all ran a sub 1:20.00 for the first time in their careers for a tight 2-3-4 finish. Jason Ervin (Farmington Hills, Mich.-Farmington) led the way in 1:19.24, followed by Mason Waynes (Kenosha, Wis.-Bradford) in 1:19.60 and Jeff Elam (Latrobe, Pa.-Greater Latrobe Senior) in 1:19.99. In the 800m, Scott Bradley (Battle Creek, Mich.-Lakeview) grabbed a third-place finish in 1:52.67, while Stephen Sparks (Lancaster, Ohio-Lancaster) was not far off in 1:53.34 for fifth.

The Eagles excelled in the distance events as well, with Harry Dixon (Nelson, New Zealand-Nayland College) winning the 3000m and Willy Fink (Maumee, Ohio-Maumee) finishing runner-up in the mile. Both harriers posted career times, with Dixon taking the field in 8:18.45 for a six-second improvement, while Fink raced in for a time of 4:06.30. Both times stand atop MAC standings by a wide margin, as Fink has a six-second edge on the conference and Dixon posted a time nearly 11 seconds ahead of his MAC competitors.

EMU clinched the victory with the 4x400m relay, which was a hot race between the Eagles and the Boilermakers of Purdue. The Green and White earned the edge thanks to Elam, Waynes, Brown, and Cameron Bolton (Missouri City, Texas-Hightower) in 3:10.04, the sixth-fastest relay mark on EMU's all-time list.

Eastern will return to Michigan for its next competition, taking on Mid-American Conference foe Central Michigan University in an away dual in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. The tangle between the two conference opponents will take place Friday, Jan. 30.

EMU Individual Results (* signifies personal best, # is an EMU record, ^ is a MAC qualifying mark)

	Final Mark	Prelim Mark
60m Dash
4. Blanchard, Wayne	6.97	7.00q
5. Snead, Kevin	6.99	6.94q
8. Bolden, Brandon		7.03
14. Delgado, Pedro		7.08

200m Dash
4. Williams, Matthew	21.75
7. Delgado, Pedro	22.26*
8. Bolden, Brandon	22.27*
9. Snead, Kevin	22.30*
13. James, Nick	22.48*

400m Dash
1. Brown, Tyler	46.26* ^
4. Williams, Matthew	47.92*^
10. Cooke, Mark	48.84*

600m Run
2. Ervin, Jason	1:19.24*
3. Waynes, Mason	1:19.60*
4. Elam, Jeff	1:19.99*

800m Run
3. Bradley, Scott	1:52.67
5. Sparks, Stephen	1:53.34*

Mile Run
2. Fink, Willy	4:06.30*^
5. Andresson, Hlynur	4:11.11*
15. Hess, Caleb	4:18.39*

3000m Run
1. Dixon, Harry	8:18.45*^
7. Witchell, Warren	8:27.87
10. Trinh, Cameron	8:29.61
13. Knox, John	8:35.45*

60m Hurdles
3. Ijah, Solomon	8.15*^	8.36q
9. Selvig, Levi		8.67
14. Lindsey, Bryce		9.18
15. Cooke, Mark		10.58

4x400m Relay
1. Elam, Bolton, Waynes, Brown	3:10.04
10. Ervin, Williams, Bradley, Sparks	3:28.06

High Jump
4. O'Shea, James	J2.00m/6-06.75

Pole Vault
7. Stites, Dylan	J4.75m/15-07.00
11. Lara, Brett	J4.60m/15-01.00

Long Jump
1. Scott, Donald	7.34m/24-01.00^
6. Brown, Tyler	6.82m/22-04.25

Triple Jump
1. Scott, Donald	16.19m/53-01.50^
8. Fishcre, Chris	12.47m/40-11.00

Shot Put
6. Harris, Travis	16.82m/55-02.50
9. Williams, Keith	16.27m/53-04.50
10. Levering, Quinn	15.89m/52-01.75*
16. Hierholzer, Mike	14.46m/47-05.25
18. Ijah, Solomon	14.20m/46-07.25

Weight Throw
2. Jones, Anthony	20.75m/68-01.00*#^
12. Williams, Keith	17.19m/56-04.00*
18. Wentz, Andrew	16.15m/53-00.00

Men's Track and Field Edges Out Tough Competition at Notre Dame Invitational

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Wayne Blanchard

Brandon Bolden

Cameron Bolton

Scott Bradley

Tyler Brown

Pedro Delgado

Harry Dixon

Jeff Elam

Jason Ervin

Willy Fink

Travis Harris

Nick James

Anthony Jones

Brett Lara

James O'Shea

Donald Scott

Solomon Simmons

Kevin Snead

Stephen Sparks

Dylan Stites

Mason Waynes

Keith Williams

Matthew Williams

Eastern Michigan Athletics