Dumitrescu, Heasley and Distance Runners Pace Kent State at Akron Invite
2/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
AKRON, Ohio - Senior Aiman Scullion and sophomore Diana Dumitrescu set school records in their respective events while junior Destin Heasley set an Akron Field House record as the Kent State track and field teams participated in the unscored Akron Invite this weekend (Feb. 12-13).
"Overall, I was very pleased with a majority of our runners," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Bill Lawson. "We just need to improve our consistency across the board and if we do that, we will have a good result in two weeks."
The performer of the weekend may have been Dumitrescu. Coming into the weekend, Lawson felt she needed to improve her pentathlon total of 3902 by 30-50 points to solidify herself in the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships. Dumitrescu not only did that, but with a 4016 total, she smashed Aja Farris' 2001 school record by 110.
"Diana punched her ticket to the national championships," Lawson said. "She matched the Akron Field House record of Abby Stechschulte, who went on and won a national championship."
Like Dumitrescu, Heasley also set a venue record and solidified his provisional mark in the 800 meters, winning the event by more than two seconds with a time of 1:49.06.
"Heasely's time was good enough to qualify for last year's NCAA Indoor Championships and he is second in KSU history only to Mike Inge's 2004 time," Lawson said.
Scullion placed second with a personal-best time of 8:11.36, breaking his own school record from 2008 by exactly seven seconds. Trying to catch Scullion was junior teammate Scott Hilditch, who ran a personal best of 8:20.44 to finish sixth.
Many other mid-distance and distance runners also set personal bests in their events. In the morning session, redshirt freshman Michael Heller ran a personal best by 16 seconds with an 8:31.72 to finish first by more than 11 seconds. Senior Jessica Lhotsky ran a season best 2:10.34 to finish second while sophomore Audrey Maheu ran a PR with a time of 2:12.37 to finish sixth in the 800 meters.
Freshman Melinda Sawnor set a PR by 13 seconds with a 5:03.64 in the mile run to finish second while classmate Brandon Bailey took second in the 400 meters for the morning session with a PR of 48.38.
"There were huge performances by the younger kids with lifetime bests," Lawson said.
The Kent State mile relay team also won despite running two true freshmen (Brandon Bailey and Javon Walker) and not using senior Curtis Eaton Jr. They crossed the line in 3:11.89, the fourth best time in school history.
After not competing in more than a month, sophomore Princeton Bryson took second in the 200 meters with a time of 21.34.
Also of note in the Akron Invite was recent KSU graduate Tony Jordanek. Jordanek won the mile with a time of 4:01.20.
"Tony Jordanek, running unattached, ran an awfully good race with a 4:01 mile to get his USA Track and Field indoor national qualifying mark. It was probably one of the top-10 times in the country," Lawson said.
The Kent State track and field teams return to action when they host their final meet of the 2010 season next weekend (Feb. 20), the Kent State Tune-Up. The first event is scheduled for 9 a.m.
| Results PDF |
