Tayala Takes Second in the Hammer on Day 1 of NCAA T&F Championships
6/10/2015 10:14:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
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EUGENE, Ore. – Kent State senior Matthias Tayala took home second place in the hammer throw on Wednesday, June 10th at Historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
Matthias Tayala earned First Team All-American honors as the Golden Flashes 4x400m relay - Matthew Tobin, Andrew O'Leary, Danny Young and Miles Dunlap - earned Second Team All-American honors.
Despite being the defending champion in the hammer throw, Tayala went into the competition ranked fourth, behind USC's Conor McCullough, Wisconsin's Michael Lihrman and Purdue's Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, respectively, and came out in second place. Said to be the underdog, same as in 2014 when he won the national title, Tayala came out took second in the event this year.
McCullough won the title this year with a throw of 76.91m (252' 4") as Enekwechi finished in sixth at 68.42m (224' 6"). Lihrman missed the finals, with two fouls, for a 16th place finish of 64.69m (211' 7").
With his first throw of the night, Tayala jumped into second place where he spent most of the day. With a throw of 70.25m (230' 5") to open his final NCAA Championships, he followed that with a second throw of 70.29m (230' 7"), while sliding down to third. Tayala threw his best mark, 71.56m (234' 9") on his third attempt where he moved back into second and remained there the rest of the afternoon. He wrapped up his competiton on Wednesday with a fourth throw of 70.52m (231' 4"), a foul, and a final throw of 68.58m (225' 0").
As the only track event on the night for Kent State, the 4x400m relay team - Matthew Tobin, Andrew O'Leary, Danny Young, Miles Dunlap - finished in 16-out-of-24 teams with a time of 3:08.36. The group took sixth in their heat of the preliminary race Wednesday night.
The Golden Flashes continue to see action tomorrow at the second day of the 2015 NCAA National Championships as Jackie Leppelmeier and Danniel Thomas go for Kent State, starting at 3:30pm EDT.
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