Flashes To Prep For NCAA Indoor Championships
3/2/2004 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
KENT, Ohio The Kent State University men's indoor track and field team wrapped up their "first" season with a third-place finish at the 2004 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships, marking their highest finish since taking second in 2000. Now KSU embarks on their "second" season, the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships March 12-13. Thus far, KSU has qualified one athlete automatically for the championships and provisionally qualified one other. Athletes from Kent State will have one last chance to qualify when the Golden Flashes travel to South Bend, Ind., to compete in the Alex Wilson Invitational March 5-6.
MAC Wrap-up: On the strength of two gold and four silver medels the men scored 112 points and finished third behind second-place Central Michigan University (145 points) and first-place Eastern Michigan University (186 points).
Inge, Rickaby Pace Golden Flashes: Sophomores Mike Inge (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria) and Phil Rickaby (N.S.W., Australia/Winmalee) won KSU's only titles over the weekend with impressive performances, combining to score 27 of KSU's 112 points. Inge won his first MAC-indoor title with a MAC Championship-record 1:49.80 in the 800 meters. Inge currently is ranked fourth in the nation in the 800 and will compete in the 2004 NCAA Indoor National Championships. Earlier in the day, Inge collected a sixth-place finish in the 400 meters (49.23).
Rickaby unleashed a personal-best leap of 49-2.50 to win the triple jump. Rickaby's distance was over a foot farther then his previous best and set the fourth-best mark in school history. On day one of the competition Rickaby finished fifth in the long jump (23-2.75)
Top Performers On The Track: Junior hurdler Keith Roberts (Bellefontaine, Ohio/Bellefontaine) and freshman sprinter Marc Johnson (Middletown, Ohio/Middletown) turned in stellar performances in the sprints. Roberts equaled his provisional NCAA time in the 60-meter hurdles (7.94) finishing second.
Johnson sprinted to second place in the 60 meters (6.77) finishing just behind CMU's Johnie Drake, who has the fastest time in the NCAA this season. In the preliminaries, Johnson ran 6.73, tying senior Otis Jordan (Detroit, Mich./Bishop Gallagher) for second on the all-time indoor list. Jordan, a former walk-on, finished sixth in the 60 (6.87) and 200 (22.0h).
From the Field: Juniors Marc Mitchell (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) and Josh Paull (Tiffin, Ohio/University of Toledo) turned in season-best performances in the long jump and high jump, respectively. Mitchell lept a personal-best 24-0.75 to place second while setting the fifth-best mark in KSU indoor history. Paull captured fourth place with a jump of 6-8.25, moving into ninth place on the all-time indoor list.
Other jumpers who scored at the MAC Championships were juniors Pawel Dutkiewicz (Leszno, Poland/Higher School) in the long jump (fourth), Adrian Ghioroaie (Bucharest, Romania/University of Texas El-Paso) in the triple jump (fifth), Pete Reynolds (Rochester, N.Y./Fairport) in the pole vault (sixth) and freshman Chad Clemons (Marblehead, Ohio/Danbury) in the high jump (eighth).
Shelby Shines: Sophomore Brent Shelby (Westlake, Ohio/Westlake) led the Golden Flash throwing unit in his second MAC indoor meet by placing third in the shot put (54-5.25) and fourth in the weight throw (57-5.50).
