Kennesaw State’s track and field teams made a stellar showing at the Atlantic Sun Conference Indoor Championships where the men’s team took gold with 212 points, and the women’s team finished second overall in its competition with 147 points.
The win marked the seventh straight championship for the Owls and their ninth overall, the most titles in conference history.
Junior Dayo Akindele of the men’s team was named the Most Valuable Performer of the event, earning gold in the long jump, triple jump and 60-meter hurdle events. He made jumps of 7.58 and 15.10 meters respectively, as well as a hurdle time of 7.90 seconds.
Tariq Bradford and Tyler Jones contributed to a sweep of the triple jump for the Owls, tying for second place at 14.64 meters.
Paris Williams joined Akindele on the podium in the 60-meter hurdle with a time of 8.24 seconds, earning a silver medal in the event. Williams would also perform well in the men’s heptathlon, winning five of the seven events — a 60-meter dash and hurdle, long and high jumps and the shot put.
Chuck McConville and Daniel McKune placed first and third respectively in the men’s weight throw with distances of 17.50 meters and 16.17 meters. The toss was a career best for McConville.
It was McConville’s second first-place finish of the competition as he also took first in the men’s shot put with a toss of 16.01 meters, followed by Owl teammates McKune and Drew Anderson for another top-three sweep.
For the women’s team, performances from teammates Erica Sergeant and Katie Hanegan helped propel the squad into second overall as the pair earned gold and bronze in the pole vault with leaps of 3.84 meters — an ASUN Indoor Conference Championship record — and 3.54 meters — Hanegan’s career best.
Other notable performances included Greta Pileckaite who nabbed a gold for the Owls with a career-best toss of 17.22 meters in the weight throw event. Joscelyn Powell broke her own school record while setting the third-fastest mark all-time in the conference championship in the 60-meter hurdle, clocking in at 8.34 seconds.
Despite a great overall showing in the competition, director of track and field Andy Eggerth is still sure the team has more to show for itself.
“I am certainly happy for our men to win their seventh consecutive title and put up several strong performances,” Eggerth said. “It’s a process and we’re definitely moving the right direction but are not satisfied.”
“I am incredibly pleased with our women’s effort and results this weekend…at the end of the day, JU simply has more cannons than we do,” Eggerth said about the women’s performance.
The track teams will begin their outdoor seasons at the Yellow Jacket Invitational held March 16-17 in Atlanta.
