Women’s and men’s track & field teams finish in sixth and seventh-place at MIAA Field Day
The Olivet College women’s and men’s track & field teams have finished in sixth-and seventh-place at the 122nd Annual Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Field Day, hosted by Hope College at the Gordon M. Brewer Track in Holland. The men’s team broke two school records, while the women had one school-record performance.
Wegener wins shot put with school-record throw
HOLLAND, Mich. – The Olivet College women's and men's track & field teams have finished in sixth-and seventh-place at the 122nd Annual Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Field Day, hosted by Hope College at the Gordon M. Brewer Track in Holland. The men's team broke two school records, while the women had one school-record performance.
MEN
Led by school-record performances in the 4x100-meter relay and sophomore Jalen Weaver, the men had 53 points to finish only six points behind sixth-place Alma College. Calvin won the team championship with 224.50 points.
Sophomores Billyle Alman and Henry Pettway, and freshmen Damien Johnson and Travon Tatum placed second in the 4x100-meter relay with a school-record time of 42.58 seconds. The previous record of 42.79 seconds was set in 2011.
Johnson, Pettway and Tatum then led a 2-4-6 Comet finish in the 100-meter dash. Their times were 11.05, 11.23 and 11.47 seconds, respectively. Johnson and Pettway were third and sixth, respectively in the 200-meter dash at 22.75 and 23.42 seconds.
Weaver finished second set a school record in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.13. His time broke the oldest Olivet running record, which was 1:53.24 by Bob Condon in 1975. Alman placed seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 58.44 seconds.
Sophomore Andrew Benkovsky scored seventh-place points in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:55.25. The 4x400-meter quartet of Alman, Benkovsky, Weaver and freshman Demetrius Washington was fourth in 3:25.53.
Freshman Tyshyn Mildton scored points in two field events. He was seventh in the triple jump, sailing 41 feet, 4¼ inches, and eighth in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 10 inches.
WOMEN
Led by junior Sara Wegener, the women scored 48 points to finish 14 points ahead of Trine (Ind.) University. Calvin College successfully defended its conference title with 273.50 points.
Wegener won the shot put with a school-record throw of 40 feet, ½ inch. She also finished in eighth-place points in the javelin with a 97 feet, 11 inch throw. With those performances, Wegener scored team points in all four throwing events for the Comets. In addition, she also became only the second individual event MIAA Field Day champion in school history.
On the track, sophomore Cassie Ciaravino was edged by less than one-hundredth of a second at the finish line in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.47 seconds. Junior Jenna Mayle narrowly broke her own school record in the 400-meter hurdles with a seventh-place finish time of 1:09.64.
The 4x100-meter relay quartet of Ciaravino, Mayle, freshman Courtney Reed and junior Rachael Wagner placed fourth in 52.22 seconds. Ciaravino, Mayle, Wagner and freshman Charlene MacKenzie was fifth in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4:21.66.
