By Bill Lawson
Director of Track & Field and Cross Country
It was really nice to get back into competition with the Golden Flashes Gala this past weekend.
We started training in September and there is a lot of hard work, energy and effort that goes into it.
It was also important for our kids and the coaching staff to see where we are in this pre-holiday time. We got a checkpoint to see where everyone is.
There were some outstanding performances over the weekend, especially on day one. It started off in the women’s 20-pound weight throw where Jackie Leppelmeier had a lifetime PR at 67-2. That is right on the edge of saying she has punched her ticket to the national championships. We can’t say for sure, but it is pretty close, and that has very excited.
On the men’s side we had two very good performances that stood out on day one. Redshirt freshman Reggie Jagers threw 59-feet in his first weight-throw competition ever for Kent State. He did a great job and will be in the mix at the conference meet for us.
The big performance of the entire day and really the entire weekend was Matthias Tayala throwing 72-2. It was one of the best series I’ve ever seen. He had four or five throws over his lifetime PR and without a doubt he has punched his ticket to the national championship. I believe that is the No. 1 or 2 throw in the nation to this point. The significance of that throw is he beat a school record that was 40 years old by an Olympian in Jacques Accambray (71-10 3/4). It was poetry to watch Matthias throw and to see how much he has matured. Coach Nathan Fangler has done so many great things with that throws group. It is impressive to see.
Matthias doing this so early in the season will allow him to go back to training and not have to worry about chasing performances. Now his only worry is to peak at the national championships. He’ll probably focus a little on the shot put and go back to some hammer throwing. He probably won’t touch the weight again until the second week in January. It might not be until the Akron Dual on Jan. 17. That cuts down on wear and tear because the weight throw is a little bit of an abusive event. It’s a lot like the triple jump where you don’t want to triple jump too many weekends. That 35-pound weight spinning four times in the ring and with all of that energy at the end of the ball can be a little bit daunting.
We had some other great performances, too. We were very happy to see Andrew Goodwin get a win in the 5,000 on Friday night. That was pretty much where we thought he would be coming off of the cross country season. We also had Steve Fischer back after an illness during the cross country season. He ran very well at 15-flat. That’s going to be good for us in the future.
Our long jump was okay. We didn’t have great performances, but we were solid. Dylan Shirley had a victory that backed up his intrasquad meet from a few weeks earlier.
We didn’t compete a lot of our women’s long jumpers. In fact, on the women’s side, I estimate that we had over 80 MAC points sitting down from the year before who did not compete. Either they competed well at the intrasquad meet, or like Matthias, we were estimating that people like Dior Delophont, Roseanne Erickson, Ann Marie Duffus, Danniel Thomas, and Joh’vonnie Mosley may all punch their tickets to the national championship by the end of the season. To conserve how many opportunities they actually compete will make them better towards the conference run that will be held here at Kent State Feb. 28-March 1, and then on into the NCAA championships.
I predicted the kids who saw the performances on the first day would get excited and that we would have a really outstanding second day. That is exactly what happened, and in particular with true freshman Matt Tobin winning the 400 meters. He had a lifetime PR indoors and he looked good doing it. That bodes well for the future for him. We didn’t have our top 400-meter runner that day in Laron Brown, who ran the 60 for a little speed work and then came back for the 4x400.
One of the two of the biggest performances on the track was Will Barnes winning the 60 hurdles and breaking eight seconds for the first time in his career at 7.98. He backed it up with another lifetime PR in the 200 meters going 21.8. That’s the first time he has been under 22 seconds.
The other really big performance was the double win by Wayne “Flash” Gordon in the 60m dash (6.85) and 200m dash (21.39), which was an indoor lifetime PR. All of our legs were tired because we are training heavy and we maxed out in the weight room this week. So to go out and do that was very impressive.
Unfortunately, one of our other top-recruit sprinters, Riak Reese, had a false start in the 60. He had looked really good in the intrasquad. But he backed it up with a lifetime PR in the 200 with 21.69.
That’s going to be fun to watch those guys compete. You add in Nate Scales and that’s a group of three really solid sprinters.
I’m very happy with vaulters Cory Miller and Jesse Oxley, who went one-two and jumped 16-1 from short-approach runs. We are not back to our full approach yet. I think they are going to make a better contribution than we’ve had in the past, and we are going to need that for our conference run.
Even though our women’s 4x400 was second to Pitt this weekend, they ran almost five seconds faster on Saturday than they did a year ago in this meet, and they ended up being the MAC champions. I think that’s a very good sign of the fitness for our women’s 4x400 team.
I was also very happy to see Lynnese Beyan’s win in the 400 and Olivia Hallstein’s win in the 200, and the one-two finish
Coach Phil Ricaby is doing a great job with the triple jumpers. They had far better performance than a year ago with Donovan Tolbert and Jailyn Twitty, they jumped very well from short approach with Tolbert winning 47-08 and Twitty second at 47-05 1/4. We are very excited about what those guys are going to be.
We’ll have a true snapshot of where our entire team is at the Akron Dual on Jan. 17. We should have everyone ready to go by then, and that will give us a look into the future of where we will be for the MAC meet.
We are about to go into winter break, and the big fear is always that this is the most important time for kids to maintain their fitness level. Some people have the ability to come back here to maintain while others have to rely on their hometown facilities. Because of weather it can be a struggle, so they do the best they can. We can’t hold regular practice, so it is up to the student-athlete to maintain his or her fitness.
The kids will come back early on the Monday or Tuesday just after the start of the new year. We open with the Doug Raymond Invitational on Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. right here at the Kent State Field House.
We are excited to have everyone back. Practice got underway on Tuesday with the bulk of the back. 
