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Men's track turns in solid performance at
Eastern
By Stephanie Riebe
Collegian Reporter
Distance runners, pole vaulters, sprinters,
throwers and mid-distance runners are a few of the different
categories that come together to form the men's indoor track
team. The Chargers proved that they could be successful in all
of these areas after competing Saturday in the Eastern Michigan
University Open.
The team had solid performances in the field
with two athletes having lifetime best performances in their
events. Freshman Harvey Hyman set a personal best in the pole
vault with a jump of 14-3.
"I was very happy with my performance,"
Hyman said. "I thank God for allowing me to vault well,
and for keeping me safe while I'm doing it."
Senior Jon Bromley also had a personal best
at 52-9 in the weight throw.
"We have had a number of athletes achieve
lifetime bests during these first few weeks of our indoor season,"
coach Bill Lundberg said. "The season has been going along
well, but now we have only four weeks to prepare for conference."
The Chargers had major finishes in both the
mid-distance and distance races. In the 200-meter junior Joel
Clark took seventh place with a time of 22.55 seconds. In the
400-meter sophomore Charles Henry took sixth place with a time
of 51.49.
"As a team we had some really solid things
happen," junior Seth Folkertsma said. "We all ran
really solid and our biggest strength is that we're improving
in all areas."
Junior David Sayers took first place in the
3,000-meter with a time of 8 minutes, 54.65 seconds, with Folkertsma
coming in second (8:56.05). Freshman Lewis Butler took fourth
place in the race and junior Michael Nikkila finished in sixth
place.
The distance runners had high finishes in
the mile run as well. Nikkila took second in the mile (4:19.09)
and Folkertsma came in third (4:20.93). Freshmen Matt Wish and
Tim Sayers were not far behind with eight and ninth place finishes,
and sophomore Charles Michael Berg finished in 10th place.
With three indoor competitions left until
the Chargers face the conference meet, the team said that they
are confident they have enough training time left to earn the
high conference finish that they want.
"We're starting to train, race and work
off of each other," Nikkila said. "We have also become
more supportive of each other in all areas of the team, in distance,
in the field, and the sprinters."
The Chargers will compete next on Saturday
at the Division II Team Challenge in University Center, Mich.
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