Men’s Track and Field Look for Provisional Marks at UMO First Chance Meet

Photo of Akeel Blake at the CACC Championships.
Photo of Akeel Blake at the CACC Championships.

Press Release Written by Mitchell Coll

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. - - Seven members of the Wilmington University Men's Track & Field Team competed in the UMO First Chance meet hosted by the University of Mount Olive on Saturday.

The schedule of events started at 11:00 a.m. today with the javelin throw. Mitchell Coll was able to improve on his school-record distance, pushing it to 49.40 meters to this point.

The next event for the Wildcats was the Hammer Throw. Joshua Varghese competed in a dense field of some impressive throwers. Varghese's best toss on the day was 44.57 meters.

The first event on the track today was the 4x100 meter relay. The relay team order had Tyler Levons starting in the blocks, who handed it off to Bradly Spencer, who handed it off to James Keenan and anchoring was Matthew Hibbert. This relay team ran the fastest time clocked for the Wildcats this season with a time of 42.17 seconds.

Tyler Levons saw his first action in the 100-meter dash since tweaking his hamstring at the Golden Ram Invitational. Levons was right back to form with a 10.75 second prelim time. Levons missed the qualification for the finals of the 100-meter dash by .04 seconds. Matthew Hibbert also ran under 11 seconds, with a final time of 10.89 seconds, which was 14th best overall. James Keenan crossed the line at 11.65 seconds.

Akeel Blake was back in the sandpit today as he finished second overall in the long jump. Blake missed the NCAA Division II Provisional Mark by a single centimeter. Blake's best jump of the day was 7.25 meters, which also improves his school-record distance. Blake will have one more shot in the long jump tomorrow to hit the provisional mark.

Joshua Varghese competed in one more throwing event on Saturday, the discus throw. Varghese was able to clear the 40-meter mark with a best toss of 40.65 meters.

Bradley Spencer competed in both hurdle events today in the 110-meter hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles. Spencer finished fourth overall in the 110-meter hurdles with a final time of 15.33 seconds. Spencer sets a personal best in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 56.63 seconds.

Up Next

The same crew will compete in the same events tomorrow in the UMO Last Chance Meet. The field events start at 1:00 p.m. and the track events start at 3:00 p.m.