The track and field team traveled to Danville, Kentucky to compete in the Centre Invitational against sixteen other teams. The men’s team finished the invitational in 11th place after scoring 29.5 points, while the women also finished in 11th after scoring 32 points.
The Case Western Reserve University men won the meet after scoring 122 points, while the Ohio Northern University women won after totaling 168 points.
“We raced against some teams we hadn’t seen before or in a while,” junior Nathaniel Reed said. “But we were able to compete against great competition that hopefully will prepare us for the next weeks of competition.”
The Tigers were led by strong performances from competitors on both sides. Sophomore Tyler Nemeth was placed second in the pole vault, as he cleared a jump of 3.95 meters, while sophomore Demarco Henry finished in third place in the discus after launching the discus 41.93 meters. Junior Nate Baker finished in eighth place in the event, with a distance of 38.6 meters.
As for the women’s field events, senior Amanda Weber’s fourth place finish in the long jump led the team after she jumped a distance of 5.16 meters. First-year Emily Wilson carried the team’s momentum into the high jump, as she cleared a height of 1.47 meters, which landed her in second place.
“Given the conditions, I think we did pretty well,” Nemeth said. “The weather was far from ideal and there were some other conflicts, but everyone managed to perform the best that they could.”
The men were led by two scoring performances from sophomore Zach Batt in the running events. Batt finished the 800 meters with a time of 1:56.98, which landed him in fourth place, and also finished the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:09.19, which landed him in seventh place. The team of sophomores Chase Wright and Johnny Miller, and first-years Mohamed Gborie and Luke Patty also scored in the 4×100 meter relay after finishing in ninth place with a time of 44.49.
The women’s team also had several scorers from the track events, including a second place finish from senior Claudia Monnett in the 5,000 meters, after she finished the event with a time of 17:35.99. The women had two scorers in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, as first-year Tori Flowers finished in second place with a time of 12:09.59, and first-year Anna Nagy finished in sixth place with a time of 13:06.51.
“Some events were pretty rusty, but others went really well,” Head Coach Kori Stoffregen said. “Spring break is always a tough one to handle, because although it interrupts our season, our season is really long and is a good break.”
The track and field team will look to return to full strength as they compete in the DePauw Invitational on Saturday. The first event is scheduled to take place at noon at the Outdoor Track.
