Huntington, W. Va. – After two grueling days of competition, the Wheeling University Men's Track & Field team wrapped up the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Indoor Championships on Saturday. They finished second overall in the tournament and had six individual MEC Champions, adding five champions on day two of the event. The sprinters and the field events each had a big day to wrap up the tournament.
The field events kicked off the day at 11 AM and also brought the Cardinal's first MEC Champion of the day. It came in the Men's Triple Jump, where
Daimar Ivey brought home the first individual title of his collegiate career. He won the Triple Jump with a distance of 13.94 meters, finishing .11 meters farther than the next closest competitor. It was Ivey's first win of the indoor season, and it came in the biggest event of the year. While there was no other day two individual champions in the field, senior
Brian Vandusen had a strong showing in the Men's High Jump, placing second in the conference with a height of 1.96 meters, falling .14 meters short of his PR. That performance wrapped up the field events ending what was a strong tournament.
As the competition moved to the track, Wheeling's sprinters came to play after flooding the finals the day before. First up was the Men's 60-Meter Dash where
Jabez Reeves continued to excel in his strongest event. Reeves won the individual championship with a time of 6.81 seconds, winning the event by .01 seconds. The 60-Meter Hurdles would bring Wheeling their third MEC Individual championship of the event as the Cardinals took the top two spots.
Julian Griffin won the event with a time of 8.27 seconds, and
Lorenzo Pelham finished behind him in second with a time of 8.30 seconds. Reeves was back out on the course for the 200-meter dash and finished second at 21.91 seconds while
Jacob Pielech finished sixth at 22.68 seconds.
The mid-distance runners would bring Wheeling's next individual champion as two Cardinals reached the NCAA Provo mark. T.J. Tindal won the event with a time of 48.41 seconds to give Wheeling it's its fourth individual champion of the day. Pielech finished in second with a time of 48.46 seconds and hit the promo mark by .06 seconds. The distance runners were up next, and Izaiah Browning took the course in the Men's 1 Mile. He would finish 10th in the field with a time of 4:30.78 to kick off the distance events. Day two concluded with Wheeling's final MEC Individual Champion as the Men's 4x400 meter team won their event. Reeves, Tindal, Ivey, and Pielech took the course, with three of those runners winning individual championships earlier in the day. The four combined to run a PR of 3:16.88 hitting the NCAA provo mark by a full second.
With a second-place finish in the MEC Indoor Championships, the Wheeling Men's Track & Field team will return to action for the NCAA National Tournament, running in Pittsburg, Kansas, from March 11th through 12th.
