Wheeling, W. Va. – Earlier Tuesday, the Mountain East Conference (MEC) named Wheeling University Women's Track & Field athlete Isha Sesay the Female Indoor Track Athlete of the Week. The awards kept coming in for Wheeling as they swept the honors with the first Wheeling University Men's Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Week Award. Junior sprinter/hurdler Julian Griffin earned the first MEC Male Indoor Track & Field athlete of the week Award of his career, after hitting the NCAA Provo Mark in the 60-Meter Hurdles.
Griffin competed in two different events, running in the 60-Meter qualifier and the 60-Meter Hurdle. His biggest event of the day was the hurdle, where he hit the NCAA Provo Mark with a time of 7.97 and is now under consideration for a spot in the 2023 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships. Griffin's day started with the 60-Meter Dash, where he placed 13th with a time of 7.17 seconds. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for him to advance to the preliminaries, but he still had the 60-Meter Hurdle ahead of him. He would run in the sixth heat of the preliminary and was the top finisher of his heat with a time of 8.16.
As he headed into the finals, Griffin was looking to stay focused and work on lowering his time even further. He would go up against solid Division II competition, with runners from Ashland and west Liberty, and tough Division I competition with runners from Youngstown State and Duquesne rounding out the field. It was Griffin's best run of the day by far as he dropped his time by .19 seconds to break the eight second mark and finish at 7.97 seconds. He would place second in the field, .03 seconds behind the winner and set a new PR in the event to finish a big day.
Griffin is the 16th different Wheeling University Student-Athlete to win an MEC Player of the Week award this season. He is the first Wheeling University Men's Track & Field Athlete to be honored and the second total track athlete to win. Isha Sesay was named this week's MEC Female Indoor Track & Field athlete of the week, giving Wheeling the clean sweep of the award.
The Wheeling University Men's Track & Field team returns to action on Friday. December 9th, when they head to the Grand Valley State Holiday Open.
