(Ann Arbor, MI) - The Men's track and field team was able to compete at home for the CUAA Alumni Legacy meet in front of family, friends, and family. While also being able to honor graduating seniors Avery Sanchez (Allen Park, MI), Michael Brannan (Dearborn Heights, MI), and Zachary Belinsky (Beulah, MI). The team came away with some good performances, including multiple podium finishes, 2 National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) qualifying marks, and 9 personal records.
The highlight of the meet came from the 4x100 meter relay team of Noah Starkey (Junior; Macomb, MI), Kash Warren (Senior; Lorain, OH), Maurice Kado (Sophomore; Beachwood, OH), and Ethan Dodson (Freshman; Rochester Hills, MI), who won the race with a time of 42.44 seconds.
In the 100-meter dash, Warren, Kado, and Dodson all made it through prelims to be able to race in the finals. Warren led the group with a second-place finish with a time of 10.87 seconds, followed by Kado in third place with a time of 11.28 seconds. Dodson finished in 7th place with a time of 11.45 seconds. For both Kado and Dodson, those times were new personal records.
For the 200-meter dash, the Cardinals once again put 2 runners in the top 3 spots. As Warren and Starkey battled it out to just a hundredth of a second. Warren finished in second place with a time of 22.20 seconds. While Starkey finished in third place with a time of 22.21 seconds. Kado also competed in the race and finished in 8th place with a time of 23.50. Kado continued his big day by running another personal record, as did Starkey.
In throwing events, the top finishes continued, as Scott Smith (Sophomore; Saginaw, MI) led the trio of Cardinals in Javelin. Smith finished in 3rd place with an NCCAA qualifying mark with a distance of 46.38 meters. The team also had Brannan and Belinsky compete in Javelin as well. Brannan finished in 8th place with a distance of 36.81 meters. Belinsky finished in 11th place with a throw of 29.81 meters.
Freshman Will Hall (Indianapolis, IN) earned a third-place finish and an NCCAA qualifying mark of 41.31 meters in the Hammer throw. Belinsky was the only other Cardinal competing in the event and finished in 6th place with a distance of 39.11 meters.
The team earned another point in the shot put from Belinsky with an 8th-place finish with a distance of 11.82 meters. Smith also competed in the shot put and tied for 9th place with a throw of 11.71 meters. To wrap up the throwing events, Hall and Belinsky competed in Discus. Hall earned a 4th-place finish with a throw of 38.03 meters. While Belinsky finished in 6th place with a distance of 29.76 meters.
In distance events, Sanchez started the day by finishing in 3rd place in the steeplechase with a time of 11:04. Theodore Eising (Junior; Royal Oak, MI) finished in 6th place in the 1500 with a finishing time of 4:19 and beating his personal record by a couple tenths of a second.
Luke Bentz (Sophomore; Fort Wayne, IN) continued to help rack up podium finishes by finishing in 3rd place in the 800 meters with a new personal record of 2:00. Zak Schroeder (Freshman; Napoleon, OH) just missed out on getting a point with a 9 place finish in the 800 with a finishing time of 2:04. A great opening mark for outdoor after finishing up his golf season. Eising, Sanchez, and Brannan all doubled back to compete in the 800 as well. Eising once again narrowly clipped his previous best time to finish a few tenths faster with a total time of 2:11. Sanchez ended up finishing in 2:17 on tired legs and Brannan continued to work back from a quad injury to run a 2:20. Jared Stiver ran a new personal record time of 2:26 to wrap up the 800 group.
Freshman Adam Fisch (Caro, MI) finished up the distance events by running a 5k and finishing just 4 seconds off his personal record from two weeks ago. Fisch finished in 6th place with a time of 17:49.
The day was wrapped up with an exciting come-from-behind second-place finish by the 4x400-meter relay team of Starkey, Schroeder, Dodson, and Bentz. The team finished just 1 second off of the school record with a total time of 3:31.60.
The team will be back in action May 4-5 at the WHAC Championships hosted by Sienna Heights. The team will have some throwers, sprint prelims and 4x800 relay compete on Thursday. While the rest of the team will compete on Friday.
