Central Michigan University
Doug Hansen Invitational
Chippewas Flex Their Muscle at Saginaw Valley
1/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Nate Perry, CMUChippewas.com
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. — The Saginaw Valley State Doug Hansen Invitational was an open meet, which means there was no team scoring.
But if points were tallied, both the Chippewa men's and women's indoor track and field teams would have found themselves toward the top of their respective leaderboards.
Most of the top-line performers for both genders did not compete last week at the Jack Skoog Invitational, making this their first action since before the holiday break.
CMU Director of Track & Field Mark Guthrie was very pleased by what he saw.
"I thought Ben Hayes, Erick Huertas … ran well, and I thought Sammy Cuneo ran really well," he said. "And I thought our 3K athletes across the board were really good too. Lots of PRs set today."
Danielle Horton got it started for CMU, finishing first in the women's 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.93 seconds. The Chippewas showed their dominance, sweeping the top five places.
Cuneo took top honors in the women's 400-meter dash with a time of 55.97 seconds.
Hayes was first on the men's side of the 400 with a time of 47.70 seconds, coming in a full second faster than Huertas, the second-place finisher.
CMU's Kelsey Ross (2:15.17) and Michaela Bundy finished 1-2, respectively, in the women's 800. Ross also claimed the top spot in the 800 last week at the Jack Skoog Invitational, giving her back-to-back wins in two weeks.
The Chippewas' Scott Cousino won the 800-meter run on the men's side in nail-biting fashion, with a margin of victory of just .12 seconds.
"It wasn't his best race, but he found a way to gut it out and win," Guthrie said.
CMU freshman Nadia Williams took the 200-meter women's title, posting a time of 24.69 in her first collegiate attempt in the race. This comes after a promising performance at the Jack Skoog Invitational in which she won the 60-meter dash and the long jump.
The Chippewas also got strong performances in the 3,000-meter runs for both genders. Kelly Schubert won the event, while Samantha Allmacher and Jamie Madrigal both finished in the top four in the women's race. Silas DeKalita and Joseph Emmanuel were among the top five in the men's event.
Logan Kleam and Conor Naughton, two CMU freshmen who competed unattached in the 3K, finished second and fourth, respectively, unofficially giving the Chippewas four top-five finishers in the race.
Dylan Banagis and Kylee Dobbelaere continued to impress in the weight throw, with Banagis claiming the top spot in the men's competition for the second time in two weeks, and Dobbelaere accomplishing the same feat on the women's side.
Also of note from the men's weight throw was Logan Targgart, a freshman from Coldwater, who broke the freshman school record in the event with a toss of 18.42 meters.
Overall, significant progress was made for both squads, something Guthrie is excited to build on as the season moves forward.
"I thought we were a better team this week than we were last week, and there were a lot of reasons for that, but another week of training definitely showed," he said. "Had some moments, some things to cheer about, but as with everything in track and field it's a work in progress."
The Chippewas will head back to Saginaw Valley next week for The Cardinal Invitational.
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Players Mentioned
