The Ball State men's track and field team wrapped its indoor season this weekend at the Mid-American Conference Championships hosted by Kent State University. The Cardinals placed seventh out of 13 in a meet that featured 21 personal record times for BSU.
"I thought we were right in the area of where we should have been," head coach Jim Sprecher said. "I told the athletes that we grew a lot as a program. It really speaks well for the future of our program."
The Cardinals scored 42 points, only three behind sixth place Toledo. Ball State boasted 15 top 10 finishes in nine events.
The meet was highlighted by three school records, set by Paul Panning (pole vault), Scott Allen (400-meter dash) and the distance medley relay team. The three school records were the most set in one meet during Sprecher's four-year tenure at Ball State.
The distance relay team featuring Brian Runyon, Shannon Grady, Jesse Davis and anchor Steve Schilling finished with a time of 9:58.59 behind Eastern Michigan by approximately two seconds. Schilling was also able to contribute to Ball State's point total in the mile in which he placed eighth.
Panning took second place honors in the pole vault with a height of 17 feet, 2 3?4 inches, while Allen's record performance in the 400 was clocked at 47.78 seconds.
Also scoring for the Cardinals in the 400-meter dash was Patrick Bush, who placed eighth with 48.16 seconds.
Ben Daniel had a particularly successful weekend, taking second place in the high jump with a leap of 6-9.
Victor Johnson and Deighton Jarrett took third and fifth place finishes respectively in the triple jump. Johnson was also able to take eighth place in the long jump.
Overall, Sprecher was pleased with the performance of his team considering its inexperience and the high level of competition in the MAC.
"The 21 personal records were huge for us. The kids came out and were prepared and competed well," Sprecher said. "It's just a highly competitive conference."
Ball State will have most of March off from competition until it starts the outdoor season.
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