Eagles Head to Akron for 2020 MAC Indoor Championships

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University men's track and field team looks to earn its Mid-American Conference-record 16th conference title when it travels to Akron, Ohio to compete at the 2020 MAC Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday, Feb. 28-29 inside the Stile Athletics Field House.

The Eagles fell just shy of back-to-back titles at last season's conference meet as they were runners-up with a team score of 153.5 points, which was 2.5 points behind first-place Akron. Former EMU standout Tyler Underwood was named the Men's Most Valuable Performer, while junior Owen Day (Ottawa, Ontario-International School of Dusseldorf) was honored as the Men's Most Outstanding Track Performer. Additionally, Assistant Head Coach Sterling Roberts was honored as the Men's Assistant Coach of the Year.

Day won the mile run at last year's meet with a time of 4:12.86, and will look to defend his title as he races alongside sophomore Baldvin Magnusson (Akureyri, Iceland-Hull University) and newcomer Wilho Hautala (Heinola, Finland-Lahden Lyseo). Day, who is also the MAC's top seed in the 800-meter run, finished second in the same event last year with a then-personal-best mark of 1:52.33. In addition to having the MAC's second-fastest time of the season in the mile run, Magnusson paces the conference in the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter races with times of 8:03.28 and 14:14.14, respectively.

Meanwhile, redshirt junior Devonte Findlay (Lauderhill, Fla.-Blanche Ely) is the top seed in the 60-meter hurdles, while redshirt freshman Alec Frymier (Hilliard, Ohio-Hilliard Bradley) will compete in the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, and the 200-meter sprint over the two-day competition. Junior Owen Richardson (Basingstoke, England-The Costello School) has EMU's highest ranking in the 200-meter and 400-meter races, and also recorded the program's best time of the season in the 60-meter event.

In the field events, junior Chukwusom Enekwechi (Valley Stream, N.Y.-Jamaica Gateway to the Sciences (Monroe College)) is the front-runner in the shot put after recording a personal-best distance of 18.66 meters at the Can-Am International, Jan. 25, while redshirt junior Baboucar Sallah-Mohammed (Arlington, Va.-Fishburne Military) is ranked second in both the long jump and the triple jump. EMU also has three of the top four competitors in the weight throw, as redshirt senior Taige Bryant (Edmond, Okla.-Edmond Memorial), freshman Kappa Bedoui (Doha, Qatar-Aspire Academy), and redshirt senior Zach Harkey (Huron, Ohio-Huron) all eclipsed the 20-meter plateau and rank second, third, and fourth in the conference, respectively.

The two-day meet begins Friday, Feb. 28 with the men's heptathlon at 11 a.m., before field events start at 12:30 p.m. and running events get underway at 3:05 p.m. From there, the conference clash will resume Saturday, Feb. 29 when the heptathlon events get underway at 10 a.m., field events begin at 1 p.m., and running events start up at 1:25 p.m. The awards ceremony is expected to take place Saturday at 5 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Kappa Bedoui

Taige Bryant

Owen Day

Chukwusom Enekwechi

Devonte Findlay

Alec Frymier

Zach Harkey

Wilho Hautala

Baldvin Magnusson

Owen Richardson

Baboucar Sallah-Mohammed

Tyler Underwood

Eastern Michigan Athletics