The Flashes’ track and field athletes greatly impressed their coaches in the Doug Raymond Invitational hosted at Kent State’s Field house.

One standout was sophomore Laron Brown III running in his first meet with Kent State. The sophomore suffered defeat in the men’s 60-meter dash by one-hundredth of a second, but redeemed himself by winning the men’s 400-meter dash by one-hundredth of a second.

“That’s track,” Brown said. “It happens. The 60 is always close and I got a good start in the 400. I got trapped on the inside at the turn so I had to run with them. Then I made my move.”

Brown won two of his three races, and Kent State athletes won eight total events.

Coach Mark Croghan was very happy about how the team performed during the meet.

“At this stage of the year, we want to see where everyone is and see how we compete,” Croghan said. “We took good first steps. The team is certainly making the transition into the competitive part of the season.”

The team performed well in many areas, giving the coaches good reason to be happy.

In the men’s 1000-meter run, Kent State finished first and second when sophomore Marteze Roper beat out fellow teammate junior Stephen Fischer by just over a tenth of a second with a time of 2:29.64.

In men’s weight throw, senior Aaron Crabtree and junior Bo Crabtree finished second and third. Aaron Crabtree’s throw of 62-00.50 beat out Bo Crabtree’s throw of 60-10.75.

For the women’s shot put, sophomore Joh’vonnie Mosley threw Kent State history’s fifth longest shot put, measured at 52-02.50.

Graduate student Penina Acayo jumped her way to a personal best of 40-06.25 to win the women’s triple jump. Senior Keri Dantley took second place, scoring Kent State another first and second place finish in an event.

Although sophomore Shanequa Williams placed fourth in the women’s 400-meter dash, her time of 55.35 was good for third best in Kent State history history.

Kent State will be back in action Friday, Jan. 20 when they faceoff against Mid-American Conference rival Akron in a dual meet starting at 6 p.m. in the Kent State Field House.