The Kent State track and field team took home second place in Bowling Green, Ohio, at the Mid-American Conference championships.

Junior Alexander Shields took home two event victories on Saturday and tallied 28 points.

Kent State finished 11 points behind Eastern Michigan.

Shields won his second-consecutive heptathlon. He had a personal best jump height at 13’-9.25” and finished with a score of 5,927. This was his first event win of the day.

“He is one of the best athletes that we’ve had year in and year out here at Kent State, so he did an awesome job,” coach Nathan Fanger said. “He’s always fully ready to go to task for us.”

Shields later went on to win the 60-meter hurdles at a time of 7.881 seconds.

“It was an awesome comeback because he had finished the multi with the 1000-meter race and then with only an hour in between races and then came back and did the 60-meter hurdles and placed first,” Fanger said. “He did a phenomenal job in the hurdles.”

In an interview with reporter Tai Belcher, Shields went on to say that it was all about executing and bringing his teammates along with him.

“It was me running against myself, me against the clock,” Shields said. “No matter what place you finish, how far you jump, how fast you run. It’s always you against the clock and I told my teammates that as well.”

Freshman Ayden Bath took home Freshman of the Year honors for his performance. Bath finished second in the heptathlon right behind Shields with a personal-best score of 4,990.

Bath also finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best of 7.99 seconds and added the high jump event at 6’2.75” in which he placed sixth.

Sophomore Alexandre Malanda won the triple jump with a mark of 50’8.75” on his final jump of the event.

“That event is one that he won in dramatic fashion,” Fanger said. “He was leading until the last round and then the athlete from Akron came up and had a huge jump and was in the lead by ten centimeters. Then Malanda came up and won it so it was quite the show.”

Junior pole vaulter Leah Pasqualetti took first place in the pole vault for the third-straight year.

Redshirt sophomore Aliesha Shaw placed second in the shot put with a 48’4” throw.

In the final event of the meet, Kent State took home the gold medal with graduate student Korie Davis II, graduate student Asa Hodrick, senior Jonathan Solomon and senior Quintin Cooks in the 4×400 meter relay with a time of 3:17:71.

Jaheim Jones also earned All-MAC honors by placing second in both the 200-meter dash (21.87) and the 60-meter dash (6.78).

Nico Crespo is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].