Kent State University
MAC Outdoor Championships
Golden Flashes Head to MAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships
5/8/2019 2:12:00 PM | Men's Track & Field, Women's Track & Field
Kent State heads to Muncie, Indiana to compete at the 2019 Mid-American Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will take place inside of University Track at the Briner Sports Complex on the campus of Ball State from May 9-11.
The three-day event features athletes from all 12 MAC women's teams and all six MAC men's programs. The top eight performers in each event will earn points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale.
Action begins Thursday, May 9 at 10 a.m. with the women's hammer. The women's heptathlon gets started with the 100-meter hurdles at 11:30 a.m. with the decathlon (100m) to follow at 12 p.m. Running are slated for afternoon, beginning with the trials for the women's 1,500-meter run at 4:45 p.m. The finals for the men's and women's 10K will conclude the evening's competition.
The men's hammer throw will open the day on Friday, May 10 at 10 a.m. The decathlon (110-meter hurdles) picks back up at 11 a.m. with the heptathlon (long jump) set for 12 p.m. The remaining running prelims will begin at 4:45 p.m. The finals for the men's and women's 3K steeplechase will bring the second day to a close.
Saturday's action begins at 11 a.m. with the men's discus, men's high jump and women's triple jump. Championship races are scheduled to start at 1 p.m. with the women's 4x100 relay and will conclude at approximately 5:15 p.m. The competition will be followed by the awards ceremony, with the meet's top individuals and teams being crowned.
Previewing the Flashes
Kent State has a total of 52 student-athletes registered for competition at the MAC Outdoor Championships, including 28 members of the men's team and 24 members of the women's team.
Trevor Detillion (discus), TJ Lawson (decathlon) and Craig Stevens, Jr. (triple jump) captured individual titles last year and enter as the top seed in their respective events. Stevens, Jr. seeks his third consecutive outdoor title.
The Flashes will look to score big with its depth in the decathlon. Lawson's school-record 7,876 points at the Tennessee Relays are the fifth-most in the country this year. Jacob Mally (6,823) enters as the No. 2 seed and Devin Snowden (6,402) is seeded fifth.
Detillion leads the throws squad with a discus PR of 185'-8" that ranks 32th in the country. The redshirt junior has won the discus in three of five meets this season. Jake Wickey is seeded second in the hammer throw with a PR of 199'-2", Ryan Demaline is third in the shot put (55'-7") and Bradley Heck is fifth in javelin (189'-8".)
The triple jump has been a big event for Kent State in recent years, with two-time outdoor All-American Stevens, Jr. and Anthony Milliner claiming the spot two spots in 2018. Stevens, Jr. ranks 14th in the nation with a season-best mark of 52'-8.25" while Milliner is seeded fifth (49'-2.5"). Samory Fraga (25'-4.5") ranks 28th nationally in the long jump, while TJ Lawson is fourth in the MAC in both the high jump (6'-9.5") and long jump (24'-9").
Christian Champen enters as the No. 2 seed in the pole vault. Champen cleared a PR height of 17'-3" at the Jesse Owens Classic and ranks 39th in the country.
Clark Bookman (3K steeplechase) and Brandon Harris (100m) lead the way on the track.
On the women's side, Kent State has the two top seeds in the high jump. Alyssa Matheny's PR of 5'-10.5" is 25th in the country and is coming off a victory at the UF Tom Jones Memorial in her most recent competition. Talia Falco has set a PR in both of her high jump competitions this season and enters with a top mark of 5'-8.75".
Gabby Bailey was named MAC Female Field Athlete of the Week on Tuesday and is seeded second in the shot put (55'-6.5") and discus (173'-1"). The freshman owns top-50 national marks in both events. Grace Tennant enters with a top-5 seed in both the discus (167'-0") and javelin (146'-3").
Nicole Yeargin leads with way on the track with entries in the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash in addition to both relay races. Yeargin is the top seed in the 200m with a school-record time of 23.26 that ranks 37th in the country. Her PR of 11.75 in the 100m is fourth in the conference. Rachel Banks is seeded second after a Kent State PR of 2:07.68 in the 800-meter run on Saturday.
How to Follow the 2019 MAC Championships
Live results and video streaming will be available online for the duration of the meet.
Players Mentioned
