Kent State University
Northeast Ohio Quad
Track and Field Heads to Northeast Ohio Quad
4/6/2018 1:08:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
Meet Schedule (PDF) • Accepted Entries (PDF) • Live Results • Video (Saturday)
Kent State will be in action at the Northeast Ohio Quad for the second weekend of the outdoor track and field season. A total of 69 Golden Flashes are slated for competition at the two-day meet on the campus of the University of Akron.
Due to impending weather forecasts predicting temperatures to be around 32 at the start of the second day of the meet on Saturday, the competition will be split between Lee R. Jackson Track and Field Complex and the Stile Athletics Field House.
The men's and women's hammer throw will be held on Friday beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Saturday's action gets started at 11 a.m. with the men's javelin. The men's long jump, women's high jump and men's pole vault will get underway at 1 p.m.
The women's 4x100 relay starts action on the track inside of Stile Athletics Field House at 1 p.m. with the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase starting outdoor competition at the Lee R. Jackson Track and Field Complex at 1:15 p.m.
Kent State will compete against host Akron, Ashland and Youngstown State at the quad meet, which will be scored as triple duals (individual events: 5-3-2-1, relays 5-3).
Previewing the Flashes
Kent State has 30 members of the men's team registered for competition this weekend. Several athletes who had standout performances in field events during the Golden Flashes' first weekend of the outdoor season will be in action. Christian Champen cleared 17'-0.75" at the Texas Relays to rank 27th nationally in the pole vault. Evan Lesnick took the pole vault title at the Oliver Nikoloff Open with a top height of 15'-05.75" and ranks fourth in the Mid-American Conference. Anthony Milliner won the triple jump with a MAC-leading mark of 48'-0.5". Brad Jones ranks third in the conference in the high jump (6'-6") and Jake Wickey is third in the hammer throw (188'-4").
The 2017 All-American trio of Samory Fraga, TJ Lawson and Craig Stevens, Jr. will make their outdoor season debuts at the Northeast Ohio Quad. Fraga earned Honorable Mention All-America honors at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the long jump and set the Kent State indoor program record twice this past winter. Lawson, a Second Team All-American in the decathlon, will compete in the discus throw. Stevens, Jr. was a First Team All-American last year and has won two straight MAC triple jump titles (2017 outdoor and 2018 indoor).
The women's team will have 30 athletes in action. Tyler Williams and Nicole Yeargin highlight the Flashes set to compete on the track. Williams, who ran a 24.79 in the 200-meter dash last week, will compete in the 300-meter hurdles. Yeargin will run in the 100-meter dash and 300-meter dash after winning the 400-meter dash in 56.73 to start the outdoor season. Both sprinters were part of the Flashes' 4x400 relay team that took first (3:50.47) at the Oliver Nikoloff Open. The trio of Maria Horrigan, Sam Tollerud and Ally Thompson will compete in the pole vault after an opening weekend that ended with Top-40 national rankings. Horrigan and Tollerud had a busy opening weekend in which they competed at the Texas Relays on Friday and the Oliver Nikoloff Open on Saturday. Both had a top height of 13'-1.5" and are tied for No. 30 in the country. Thompson cleared a personal-best 13'-0.25" at the Oliver Nikoloff Open for a No. 39 national ranking and a spot at No. 7 in the KSU record book.
Gabrielle Figueroa will make her outdoor debut in the hammer throw. Figueroa earned All-America honors with a 14th-place finish in the weight throw last month at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and is a two-time regional qualifier in the hammer throw.
Players Mentioned
