The progression is going just as planned for the Ball Statemen's track team, as it wrapped up the Pacesetter InvitationalSaturday and looked forward to the remaining three weeks of theregular season.
At the Pacesetter, host Indiana State won the meet by a 99-pointmargin over the second-place Cardinals. Assistant coach B.J. McKaybelieves the runner-up finish was not entirely important in theoverall outlook of the outdoor season.
"Every week we're having guys get closer and closer to lifetimebests. The progression is going just as we like," McKay said. "Ifwe would have loaded up this meet, we could have scored a lot morepoints, but that's not the ultimate goal."
Sophomore thrower Jeremy Gillingham won the shot put with a markof 51-3 3/4 and was fourth in the hammer throw at 150-9.
"It was a dismal throw by his standards (in the shot put) andwasn't as far as he wanted to throw, but a win is a win," McKaysaid. "Jeremy's getting better all the way around."
Former Ball State athlete Zach Riley participated as anunattached athlete in the hammer throw. His winning mark of 228-10was 57-7 feet better than the nearest competitor and puts him asone of the top ten hammer throwers in the country, eitherprofessionally or collegially.
Junior Ben Daniel also showed improvement, placing fifth in thehigh jump with his best mark of the outdoor season: 6-7.
In the pole vault, senior Paul Panning was in typical dominantform with a first-place finish at 16-10 3/4.
"We were looking to get a little more out of (Paul) but itwasn't meant to be that day," McKay said. "It was pretty positive,but we're always trying to get more out of him to move him up inthe national rankings."
The team continues with its outdoor season Saturday when itsends a split squad to the highly competitive Drake Relays in DesMoines, Iowa and the Big Ten Preview Invite, hosted by Purdue.
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