Men's, women's track finish well in weekend meet

April 14, 2008 —

The men and women Cardinals track and field teams combined for 19 first place finishes Saturday, despite cold and wet conditions at the SVSU Outdoor Collegiate Open.

On the women's side, three different Cardinals finished the day with two victories each.

Senior long jumper and hurdles runner Leighann Dowell won both the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump.

Senior thrower LaTille Ross finished tops in the javelin and shot put, while also finishing second in the discus throw.

Jessica Sweeny also had a strong meet, winning both the 800 and 1500-meter runs.

The Cards also had four other women place first in their events.

Sprinter Tasha Balls won the 100-meter dash while junior sprinter.

Junior middle distance runner Ashley Morrow was first to finish the 200-meter dash.

Junior distance runner Elayna Dush finished first in the 10,000 meter run.

Junior jumper Christina Ferguson finished atop the triple jump, completing the first-place finishes for the women's team.

The lady Cards also had a number of runners come close to winning events, as eleven runners finished in second place.

The Cardinals had competitors finish in the top two in every single one of the events on the day.

The men won their nine events in a much different fashion than the women, as nine different individuals won events.

Sophomore middle distance runner Tony Filipek finished first in the 800-meter run, with a time of 1:53.59.

Also finishing atop a distance run was senior middle distance runner Nick Krus, who finished the 5,000 distance run with a time of 14:42.56.

Switching over to sprint races, sophomore hurdler Brock Humprhries won the 100-meter hurdles.

Freshman hurdler and jumper Paul LaRue finished atop the 400-meter hurdles.

Rounding out the winners from the sprint races was junior distance runner Len Weddel, who finished first in the 1500-meter run.

Not to be outdone by the racers, the field competitors also finished with four first place finishes.

Junior Kyle McDaniel finished first in the pole vault.

Senior javelin thrower Tony McDaniel finished also finished well, placing atop the standings in the javelin competition.

Rounding out the field of first place finishers was junior thrower Sean Egan, who won the shot put, and sophomore thrower Josh Koglin, who won the hammer throw.

Koglin also had a strong performance in the shot put, finishing second behind Egan.