After breaking old records and setting news ones in the Tennessee Relays from April 9 to 11, Kent State duplicated that same success when the team broke a total of four records over the weekend.

The team was split up for two events: Some athletes participated in the Cardinal Invitational at Ball State in Indiana, while others competed in the War Eagle Invitational at Auburn in Alabama.

In the Cardinal Invitation on Friday, the Flashes saw eight of its athletes secure a first-place finish.

Sophomore Matthew Tobin claimed the 100-meter dash when he finished with a time of 11.07 seconds. Senior Miles Dunlap and sophomore Andrew O’Leary were victorious in their races on the track as well. O’Leary took the 400-meter dash when he ran a time of 48.07 seconds. Dunlap finished first place in both the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter hurdles. He finished the hurdles with a time of 52.47 seconds.

Dunlap set his career-best in the 200-meter dash, when he ran a time of 21.45.

Also setting a new personal best over the weekend was sophomore David Paliscak, who threw 17.01 meters in the shot put.

Like Dunlap, senior Matthias Tayala took home victories in the hammer throw with a mark of 71.05 meters and the discus throw at 53.78 meters, according to the invitational results.

Freshmen Ryan Looser and Abdul-Nasser Seidu had major contributions for the team as well. Seidu set a personal best in the high jump event when he jumped 2.05 meters. Finishing up the day for the Flashes was Looser, who had a first-place finish in the javelin with a personal best of 55.59 meters.

When the team resumed action on Saturday in the War Eagle Invitational, it was junior William Barnes who made his mark in Kent State history. Barnes ran the 110-meter hurdles in a school record-setting time of 13.56 seconds.

The previous record was set in 2000, with a time of 13.79. With the new time, Barnes is now tied for the fastest time turned in this year in the nation.

Barnes’ race was the only event that the Flashes finished in first place with on Saturday, but the team did have two second place finishes: Junior Wayne Gordon ran the 200-meter dash with a time of 20.81 seconds, and the men’s 4×100 meter relay team of Gordon, Barnes and freshmen Isaiah Conkle and Jonathan Grant, finished in second place with a time of 40.54 seconds.

After setting new records two weekends in a row, Kent State will look to continue its hot streak when they split to compete at three meets: Drake Relays (April 22-25), the Hillsdale College Gina Relays (April 24-25) and the Ashland Open (April 25).

Contact Quentin Smith at [email protected].