Men's Track Set For A Busy Weekend
4/27/2004 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
KENT, Ohio The Golden Flashes will be a busy track team this week competing in three meets. The majority of the team will head up Route 59 to the University of Akron to compete in the Akron Quad Saturday, May 1. A small group will be competing at the Jesse Owens Invitational in Columbus, Ohio Friday, April 30, and another contingent will head to Berea, Ohio for the Baldwin Wallace Invitational Sunday, May 2.
All-Ohio Wrap-Up: The Golden Flashes ascended on Ohio State University to battle for bragging rights in the Buckeye State at the All-Ohio Championships (April 16-17) and came away with a third-place finish (101 points).
Regional Report: Two more athletes qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships bringing the total on the men's side to six. Returning NCAA Championship qualifier senior Peter Weisz (Tatabanya, Hungary/Veszprem) won the steeplechase at the All-Ohio Championships with a time of 9:05.74, easily eclipsing the 9:08.15 standard.
Also qualifying for the men at the All-Ohio Championships was junior Marc Mitchell (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills), who lept a personal-best 24-1.50 to take third and achieve the eighth-best outdoor mark in school history.
The previous qualifiers include junior Keith Roberts (110-meter hurdles), junior Constantino Navarro (400-meter hurdles), sophomore Mike Inge (800 meters) and sophomore Brent Shelby (discus).
Penn Relays Recap: At the Penn Relays, one of the premier events in the country, the Golden Flashes proved that they are one of the powers in the track world.
The men's 4x800-meter relay team of freshman Ray Armstrong (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria), senior Peter Weisz (Tatabanya, Hungary/Veszprem), freshman Ryan Schroeder (Pemberville, Ohio/Eastwood) and sophomore Mike Inge (Elyria, Ohio/Elyria) won the open division in 7:31.14. Their time would have been good enough for 10th place in the championship race and bettered the times of collegiate track powers such as the University of Tennessee and Stanford University.
The 4x100 team of freshman Marc Johnson (Middletown, Ohio/Middletown), senior Otis Jordan (Detroit, Mich./Bishop Gallagher), junior Marc Mitchell (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) and classmate Adrian Ghiorale (Bucharest, Romania/UTEP) placed seventh in the 4x100-meter championship with a time of 41.14.
Junior Pawel Dutkiewicz (Leszno, Poland/Higher School) was the only other Golden Flash to place in the top-10, taking ninth in the long jump with an outdoor-best leap of 23-00.50.
Jordan Sets PR: Senior Otis Jordan's (Detroit, Mich./Bishop Gallagher) second-place time of 10.52 in the 100 meters improves his own 10th-place standard. Jordan's time also was .02 seconds off the regional mark.
Hillsdale Notes: While most of the team was at the Penn Relays, the rest competed at the Hillsdale Relays in Hillsdale, Mich., April 24. Freshman Andy Nicholas (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sylvania Northview) led the way for the Golden Flashes unleashing a throw of 174-9 to place 10th in the hammer throw. His throw bettered his personal-best by over 13 feet and set the top-hammer mark by a KSU thrower this season.
Also turning in strong performances were sophomore Phil Rickaby (N.S.W., Australia/Winmalee), who placed third in the triple jump (46-5.25) and classmate Brent Shelby (Westlake, Ohio/Westlake) who placed sixth in the discus (161-9) and eighth in the shot put (51-7).
Up Next: The Golden Flashes have one more week of competition before the 2004 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Outdoor Championships when they compete at the Al Campbell Open (May 8) in Akron, Ohio and the Len Paddock Invitational (May 7-9) in Ann Arbor, Mich.
