Men's Track Prepares For Split-Squad Weekend

HILLSDALE, Mich./ COLUMBUS, Ohio (EMUEagles.com) - The Eastern Michigan University men's track and field team readies for a weekend full of competition Thursday, April 25 through Saturday, April 27. The Eagles will send a small group of distance runners to compete at the Hillsdale "GINA" Relays, hosted by Hillsdale College Thursday and Friday, April 25-26, while the rest of the team will compete at the Jesse Owens Classic, hosted by the Ohio State University Friday and Saturday, April 26-27.

Competing at the "GINA" Relays for the Eagles are freshmen Joseph Ingram (Cincinnati, Ohio-Anderson), Dan Kuhn (Erie, Pa.-Harbor Creek), and Baldvin Magnusson (Hull, England-Hull University), redshirt freshman Ian Cook (Worthington, Ohio-Thomas Worthington), sophomore Solomon Costa (Gahanna, Ohio-Gahanna Lincoln), redshirt sophomore Austin Wicker (Pinckney, Mich.-Pinckney), and redshirt senior Melika Ghali (Toronto, Canada-Jarvis Collegiate Institute (Boise State)). Costa will compete Thursday in the 3000m Steeplechase at 6 p.m., followed by Cook, Ghali, Ingram, Magnusson, and Wicker running the 5000m at 8:30 p.m. Kuhn will participate in the 800m on Friday, set to begin at 4:25 p.m.

EMU last competed at the "GINA" Relays in 2018, recording six career-best efforts in Hillsdale, Mich. April 27-28. Then-sophomores Sean Beckom (Saginaw, Mich.-Heritage) and Terrell Posada (Naples, Fla.-Naples High) led the Green and White, each running in the 100m dash, placing third with a time of 10.68 and fourth with a time of 10.81, respectively. Beckom also earned an additional third-place effort with a top-collegiate effort in the 200m of 22.29. In the field events, then-redshirt junior Austin Hazek and then-redshirt freshman Taige Bryant (Edmond, Okla.-Edmond Memorial) both gathered career-best efforts in the hammer throw, as Hazek placed seventh overall with a heave of 49.32m and Bryant finished two spots behind him with a clearance of 48.89m.

The Eagles have not attended the Jesse Owens Classic since last making an appearance at the event in 2016. Then-freshman Zach Harkey (Huron, Ohio-Huron) and redshirt-freshman Zach Purcilly (Troy, Mich.-Avondale) each saw action in the first day of competition, as Harkey finished 15th overall in the hammer throw with a career-best clearance of 48.34m, while Purcilly also recorded a top-collegiate effort in the shot put with a 16th-place, 15.38m throw. Also representing EMU on the second day of the classic were then-freshmen Nick Herbert (Portage, Mich.-Portage Northern), Cameron Hart (Columbus, Ohio-Bishop Hartley), and Micah Peters (York, Ontario-Vaughn Road Academy), competing in the jump events. Herbert earned seventh in the long jump and 14th in the triple jump, clearing 7.03m and 12.87m, respectively, while Hart placed eighth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.98m. Peters paced the Eagles' triple jump efforts, finishing in sixth with a leap of 14.35m, his then-career-best performance.

Competition in Columbus, Ohio begins at 2 p.m. on Friday with the hammer throw, while running events are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Saturday's field events kick off at 10:30 a.m. with the discus throw, while the day's first track event is scheduled for 12:05 p.m. Live results for the GINA Relays will be available here, while a link to results from the Jesse Owens Classic, when available, can be found on the Men's Track and Field schedule page on EMUEagles.com.

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Players Mentioned

Taige Bryant

Solomon Costa

Melika Ghali

Zach Harkey

Cameron Hart

Austin Hazek

Nick Herbert

Dan Kuhn

Baldvin Magnusson

Micah Peters

Terrell Posada

Zach Purcilly

Eastern Michigan Athletics