Back On Track
3/31/2016 12:00:00 AM | MTF
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The Central Michigan track and field team will open the spring schedule this weekend at three meets.
Most of the squad will go to Charleston, Ill., for the Eastern Illinois Big Blue Classic, while others will partake in the Stanford Invitational and still others will go to the Distance Carnival at San Francisco State.
"Looking for a starting point, where are we at?" CMU director of track and field/cross country Mark Guthrie said. "This week it starts and practices keep getting faster from here on out."
The Chippewas are back at it just five weeks after closing the indoor season at the MAC Championships. The CMU men finished fifth, the women were seventh in that event.
"I thought we did not have a good meet on the women's side at the conference," said Guthrie, who is beginning his third outdoor season in charge of the program. "On the women's side we were pretty young and it showed. The men were relatively good.
"I still think we're a better outdoor team than we are an indoor team because (outdoors) you pick up the discus, the javelin, you have the steeplechase. The 10K kind of fits our group a little better than the 5K."
The Chippewas, as they have been in the recent past, are strong in several areas, particularly the throws. The mainstays on the men's side are senior Cole Walderzak, junior Dylan Banagis, and sophomore Kevin Weiler; while on the women's side, it's senior Devene Brown and juniors Kylee Dobbelaere and Kyleigh Young.
Walderzak is the defending outdoor MAC champion in the discus.
The CMU men will also look to defend their MAC title in the 4x400 relay. Three of the four members of that squad - Erick Huertas, Ziemowit Dutkewicz and Malik Vasquez - are back. That trio, along with Quincy Briggs, set the CMU indoor record in the event in the MAC indoor championships.
Benjamin Hayes, another very capable long sprinter, also returns and the Chippewas' speed corps should be bolster with the addition of sophomore Berkley Edwards, a transfer from Minnesota.
Dutkewicz joins Shane Moffo, who was second in the 60-meter hurdles at the MAC indoors, to give the Chippewas two very capable hurdlers.
Others who could be major contributors on the men's team are long jumper Diavonte Smith, high jumper Matt Mueller along with distance mainstays Nate Ghena, Silas DeKalita and Joseph Emmanuel.
On the women's side, the Chippewas feature several middle-distance runners, such as junior Kelsey Ross and freshman Samantha Cuneo, who are highly capable, Guthrie said.
The sprints feature freshman Gabriella Beauvais, who is also a solid long jumper, and sophomore Tina Davis. Hurdler Kyla Walton, a sophomore, along with April Micheaux, also a sophomore, also enter the season loaded with potential.
Micheaux was fourth in the pentathlon at the MAC indoors.
Like the men, the CMU women feature a number of solid mainstays in the distance events, including Megan O'Neil, Kirsten Olling, Kelly Schubert and Samantha Allmacher.
Hayes, Huertas and Dutkiewicz will go to Stanford this weekend, while Ghena, DeKalita, Ross, Olling, Schubert and Allmacher will run in the Distance Carnival at San Francisco State.
Those student-athletes will encounter good competition on the west coast, Guthrie said, as will the balance of the Chippewas who will go to Eastern Illinois' Big Blue Classic, which features 15 teams.
"You're going to have pretty good competition in every event," Guthrie said. "And you're hoping for a mark to get you into the MAC, and maybe more."
Guthrie said the weekend is about discovering where each of the athletes stacks up, and then setting a course which will allow each to peak for the MAC Outdoor Championships, which are Mary 12-14 at Toledo.
There have been increasingly encouraging signs in the three years since Guthrie took over the program. And while CMU has made strides, it, like every other collegiate track and field program, is largely measured on its performance in the league meet.
"Each year is a different year," Guthrie said. "It's getting all those pieces to come together, and then being good on the right day."
Players Mentioned
