Frostburg, MD. – The 2023 Mountain East Conference (MEC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships kicked off on Sunday from Frostburg State University. It was a heavy field event day on day one, with three different Cardinals competing in the day one festivities. The Cardinals did crown their first MEC Individual Champion of the event and all three Cardinals who competed had top 10 finishes on the day to kick off the tournament.

Leading the way was junior Andrew Taylor, who was defending his MEC Championship in the High Jump from last season. He became the first MEC athlete to break the seven-foot mark a season ago, and began this tournament strong. He easily cleared 1.97 meters and 2.00 meters on his first jump and moved on to the 2.05 meter mark. He was the only competitor to clear either of those marks and he added another clearance on the first try when he jumped the 2.05 meter mark. He would move on to the 2.10 meter mark, but unfortunately his day came to an end as he finished at 2.05 meters. While it wasn't a PR, he still beat out the rest of the field by .14 meters to earn his second straight MEC title in the event.

The day began with sophomore Nick Zaller competing in the Men's Javelin in his first MEC Championship event in Track & field. It was just his fourth time competing in the Javelin and with each throw he increased his distance. He hit 34.08 meters on the first throw and 37.52 meters on the second throw as he looked to continue through progression. His top distance of the event came on the final throw, when he hit 37.66 meters to take 10th place overall in the field. The other Cardinal to compete was junior Damian Jackson, who took on the Long Jump. Jackson would begin his day by jumping 6.35 meters and hit his top mark of the day of 6.43 meters on jump two. He would not register a distance for the rest of the event, but earned three points for his team with the sixth place finish.

The Wheeling University Men's Track & Field team is back in action on day two of the MEC Outdoor Track & Field championships on Monday. Their first event will come in the Men's Shot Put, beginning at 12:30 PM.