At 7:45 on Saturday morning while most of EMU’s campus was still asleep, the Track and Field team loaded up on their Quick’s charter bus en route to Roanoke, VA to compete at the Roanoke Invitational Challenge. Although up against D1 competition, the meet was full of personal records and wins for the Royals.
One of the highlights of the day came when sophomore Isaac Alderfer took first place in the 800 meter with a personal college record of 1:58.13. Right behind Alderfer, first-year Jansen Miller finished in second, also achieving a personal record of 2:00.66.
“It was really great to see Isaac and Jansen dominate the 800,” said Assistant Coach Joanna Friesen. “Today was progress. For a lot of our team, we’re continuing to learn and grow. And for others, today was another chance to whittle down their PR and get ready for ODACS.”
First-year Haley Whorton also showed immense progress with personal records in both the weight throw (10.07m) and the shot put (8.81m).
“We had some good practices this past week, and Coach John’s been really helping us with our footwork and everything,” Whorton said.
Coach John Denlinger recently took on more responsibility in an interim coaching position when Coach Eric Camodeca stepped down last semester.
“With the number of injuries that we’ve had on the team, I’m pretty happy with how everybody did today,” said Denlinger.
Another standout performance came out of the 5000m when junior Justice Allen, first-year Clay Kauffman, and first-year Nate Yoder all finished in the top seven with times of 16:32.55, 17:11.07, and 17:34.27, respectively.
First-year Jordan Jones took eighth in the high jump at 1.45m. “When I jumped 4’9” [1.45m] the bar literally bounced up and landed safely. That was a good moment for me,” Jones said.
Senior Justin Odom took sixth in the shot put with a 12.49m throw, and sophomore Alijah Johnson finished fourth in the 200m with a time of 22.80. As he finished up his supper of pizza on the bus ride home, Johnson said, “I’m just looking forward to the next opportunity to get back to training.”
With ODACS in sight, the Royals will focus on their training for the next two weeks. The team will be back in action in Boston for the David Hemery Valentine Invite and Hagerstown, Maryland for the Larry Sharpe Memorial meet on Valentine’s weekend.
