Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
NCAA Indoor Championship
Chippewas 3rd, 9th After Day 1 of MAC Championships
2/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | MTF
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The Central Michigan men are third and the women ninth after day one of the Mid-American Conference Championships at CMU's Jack Skoog Indoor Track & Field Complex.
Eastern Michigan tops the team standings in both genders. The Eagle women concluded Friday's competition with 48.75 points, five better than second-place Akron. CMU scored 8.75 points.
The EMU men collected 44 points on Friday, while Akron stands in second place with 28. CMU has 20. Twelve women's teams and five men's teams comprise the two-day event, which re-commences on Saturday at 10 a.m. and is scheduled to conclude at approximately 5 p.m.
"It was a typical track meet," CMU coach Mark Guthrie said. "You had some good, some bad. You learn from different situations; if you don't learn you're just getting older. The ones that struggled a little bit, they've got to learn from it, put themselves in a better position to do better next time.
"The message for (Saturday) is, 'It is the finals, you put it out there, compete intelligently. The races are won when you hit the finish line, not when you start. It's about running the full racing distance, and that's what's important.'
"They don't hand out the awards halfway through the race. They hand them out at the finish, and we've got to finish tomorrow.
"I asked the team (Thursday) night to be the best you that you can be and that's what we're looking for. Get out and get the job done and represent themselves and CMU well."
Several Chippewas placed in events that were completed on Friday: Pentathlon, weight throw, long jump, pole vault, the 5,000-meter run, and the distance medley relay.
Many other CMU student-athletes qualified for Saturday's finals in several events.
CMU's Cole Walderzak and Dylan Banagis placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the men's weight throw. Walderzak's throw measured at 65 feet, 5 inches; Banagis' at 62-8 ¾. Both were lifetime bests.
The Chippewas also scored in the 5,000-meter runs, the distance medley relays, and the women's pole vault.
Sophomore Silas DeKalita was fourth and junior Nate Ghena fifth in the men's 5,000, while senior Abbey Kelto was sixth and freshman Kirsten Olling was eighth in the women's 5,000.
DeKalita finished in 14 minutes, 35.71 seconds; Ghena in 14:40.29; Kelto in 16:55.18; and Olling in 17:01.84.
"Kelto was Kelto," Guthrie said. "That's an extremely deep, deep field in the 5,000 so for her to be where she was I thought that was great.
"I thought Ghena and Silas ran pretty well. They competed well."
The Chippewa men were second in the distance medley relay, while the women placed fifth.
Joseph Emmanuel, Ziemowit Dutkiewicz, Kyle Allinder and Ben Wynsma comprised the men's relay, which finished in 10:09.90; Esther Bell, Lexi Mielke, Michaela Bundy and Kelly Schubert comprised the women's, which finished in 11:55.37.
The begins with a 1,200, followed by a 400, an 800 and finishes with a 1,600.
"The women's DMR did a nice job," Guthrie said. "We were hoping to be in the top five and we were. A job well done by them, especially Schubert who ran the (open) 5K and came back 18 minutes later and ran the mile anchor (in the relay). That's tough.
"It was a great run for the men. We had a freshman (Emmanuel), a sophomore (Ziemowit) and two seniors."
Freshman Rebekah Petty tied for seventh in the women's pole vault at 12-2 ¾.
The Chippewas who advanced to Saturday's finals are Chaz Bradshaw, men's 60 hurdles; Kelsey Ross, women's 800; Tyler Hamilton, men's 800; Ravyn Baxter, women's 400; Malik Vasquez and Erick Huertas, men's 400; and Lorenzo Wells, men's 200.
Freshman Tina Davis, who entered the meet with the second-best qualifying time in the women's 60-meter dash, failed to qualify for the finals.
"Tina Davis was out of the blocks well, then about the fifth step I don't know what happened, whether she caught a spike or what, and you do that in the 60 meters, you're only running for 6 seconds, 7 seconds, you just can't recover from that," Guthrie said.
"We had a good day. More good than bad and for a young team I was pretty pleased with them. Now we have to regroup, get ready to go (Saturday. Not make a big deal out of it. We're not splitting the atom, we're running track.
"We're never going to run great fast times on this track just because it's a 200-meter track and people are used to 300. But in these meets it doesn't matter because it's about competition, it's about me beating you, it's about head-to-head."
Players Mentioned
