Central Michigan University Athletics
Men's Track and Field Competes at EMU Triangular Today
1/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | MTF
Jan. 27, 2006
Complete Release (including top times/marks) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
MOUNT PLEASANT - The Central Michigan University men's track and field team will take to the track for the first scored meet of the season when it competes at the Eastern Michigan Triangular later today. The Chippewas and the University of Detroit will be the visitors to EMU's Bob Parks Indoor Track at the Bowen Fieldhouse in Ypsilanti, Mich.
CMU put together a positive showing at the Red Simmons Invitational, hosted by the University of Michigan, last weekend, notching a total of 13 top-five finishes. CMU's sprinters brought home the only two event wins, with Greg Gogola taking the 200m and Steve Wezner breezing to a win in the 400m, but both Pierre Vinson (100m) and Abraham Mach (600m) garnered second-place finishes. Also, the CMU throwers put forth a strong effort, with both John Pilling (shot put) and Dave Stallworth (weight throw) earning runner-up finishes.
"I thought we made a step in the right direction last weekend," CMU head coach Jim Knapp said. "We were able to get some of our athletes into their first competitive action of the season. Both Pierre and Abraham made their season debut at the Red Simmons, and they were both impressive. I thought that Pierre was ahead of where I expected him to be at this point of the season.
"We were very excited with the performance of our throwers. We have some outstanding athletes there, and that is an area of great depth for our team. (Assistant coach) Larry Levine has done just a tremendous job of coaching that group. That's going to be one of the most competitive areas at the conference meet, because there are several deep teams in the throwing events - EMU, Akron, Kent State - and it will be a fight for points in the throwing events."
Perhaps the biggest concern as the Chippewas enter their first scored meet is the overall health of the team. With just four weeks until the MAC Indoor Championships, CMU won't push anyone struggling with a slight injury into competing at EMU today.
"As a coach, you always have to be conscious of the health of the athletes," Knapp said. "You can't compete at the highest level in track and field at only 70 or 80 percent. It will compromise your performance. You need to have your body in the ultimate physical condition to perform at your best. There's no need to push anyone for this meet at EMU.
"Our goal is to be at our best and peak for the conference meet, and this is just another step closer to the conference meet. I fully expect that the team that we take down to Eastern will compete well, and we'll continue to fine tune things and look to determine where we want to place people to maximize our opportunity to score points at the conference meet."
In their preseason poll, the league's head coaches picked CMU as the favorite to repeat as MAC indoor champions. Eastern Michigan, however, was just behind CMU in the ballotting.
"This Eastern Michigan team doesn't resemble the one that competed last year," Knapp said. "They've gotten an influx of talent from a lot of different places, and they're a lot better than they were last year. We know that they will be a very competitive team at the MAC Indoor Championships."
Today's triangular meet begins with the throwing events at 5 p.m. Running events will start at 6:15 p.m.
-###-
