Kent State men’s track and field team had two individuals finish in first place in their events at the Youngstown Invitational. Senior Christian Champen finished first in the pole vault with a distance of 5.20m and freshman Jack McElligott finished first in the high jump unseeded event with a distance of 2.00m.

The Flashes were also successful in the long jump and shot put events. Freshman Brian Phillips finished in second for the long jump with a distance of 7.12m.

Three Kent State athletes competed in the shot put: Walter Oetzel, Ryan Demaline and Trevor Detillion. Oetzel finished in third with a score of 16.83m, while Demaline finished in 6th with a distance of 16.46m and Detillion with 16.30m. It was the Flashes best event on the day.

The Flashes would go on to have six more top five finishes in the 60m hurling, 400m dash, 60m hurdles and 500m dash. Freshman Lucca Passarelli finished fifth in 60m hurling with a time of 8.80.

Freshman Justin Dwyer was the only Kent State athlete to finish in the top 10 for the 400m dash, where he placed at number five with a time of 49.54 seconds. Four other Flashes ranked, too: freshman Kyle Sommer (13), freshman Jonathan Solomon (29), freshman Brady Richmond (44) and junior Dontae Deas (35). 

Kent State also placed well in the 60m hurdles with junior Jacob Mally finishing in second with a time of 8.14 seconds. The Flashes had three individuals in the 500m dash: freshman Nate Cousino in second, freshman Quintin Cooks in third and senior Kole Johnson in fourth. 

Despite the success the Flashes had on Friday, the team struggled with the one mile race, despite having four athletes racing. Freshman Trey Double placed the highest of the four at 16th, while freshman Jason Anzaldi finished 23rd, sophomore Colton Shail finished 35th and junior Sam Micheal finished 36th.  

Kent State’s next meet will be Friday, Jan. 24 at 5 p.m. at the Akron Dual. 

Contact Amanda Levine at [email protected].