Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
MAC Outdoor Championship
Chippewas Win MAC Championship
5/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | MTF
May 14, 2005
ATHENS, Ohio -- For the second time in 2005, the Central Michigan University men's track team is the Mid-American Conference champion.
The Chippewas won the outdoor title on Saturday with a MAC-record 220 points following their indoor title in late February. It marks the second time in the last three years that CMU won the outdoor championship.
"It's all about character, I remember certain things about all my teams but the thing I'll remember about 2005 is the character of this group. With all the setbacks, they just refused to give it up. The last 10 days they really started to come around and I'm just incredibly proud of them," said head coach Jim Knapp.
The "Most Valuable Performer" for the meet was Steve Wolf. He scored 24 points to lead the Chippewas.
"He epitomizes a team leader. He scored 24 points with some great performances, there was no backing in to any of those points. The high jump was the single most exciting event the entire weekend," Knapp said.
CMU finished with nine individual 2005 outdoor MAC champions. On Thursday, Dave Jones won the pole vault (16-6 ¾) and Jeff Powers(30:17.53) edged teammate Dave Ernsberger(30:17.55) for the 10,000m crown. On Friday only one Chippewa was crowned a champion, as Jacob Friess came from behind at the midway point to win the decathlon easily with 7,323 points.
On championship Saturday, the Chippewas dominated. They held leads of 24 and 27 points after the first two days, respectively, but their depth wore the rest of the field down on day three. In addition to winning events, CMU wanted to have multiple athletes score. They accomplished that task in nine events. Six times the Maroon and Gold had three individuals place in an event to create the final margin of 37 points over second-place Kent State.
Champions crowned on Saturday were Steve Wezner in the 400m (47.27 seconds), Clarence Glenn in the 110m hurdles (13.8 seconds), Steve Wolf in the high jump (7-03. ¾), Pierre Vinson in the 100m (10.52 seconds) and 200m (21.59 seconds) and Nick Stout in the 400m hurdles (51.85 seconds).
Vinson edged out Kent State's Marc Johnson by one hundredth of a second in the 100m in what was an amazing race.
"Right after that race the lightning came, so they got everyone off the track. It was still 45 minutes before we knew who won the race," Knapp said.
The championship meet was delayed two hours due to lightning and heavy rain at around 1:30 p.m.
"We brought 26 athletes and 24 scored. They certainly have laid claim to one of the best groups to come through the MAC," he said.
When asked how he felt about his team's performance, coach Knapp had a one word answer: Pride.
The Chippewas have next week off, before those who have qualified for the NCAA regionals travel to Bloomington, Ind.
Other Quotes
Knapp on Soj Jibowu, who has been injured all season long, but took second in the 400m: "He's in very rough shape. After he finished he came over to me and couldn't even talk. Most normal people would not have even ran that race. His college career is now over, and I don't even know how to thank a kid like that."
Knapp on the effort his team gave: Never giving up, we saw a lot of that. I could go down every event and site instances where someone refused to lose.
