GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Indiana Tech men's indoor track and field team won its seventh straight conference title as they won the 2019 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Indoor Championships Saturday with a meet record 273.5 points inside the Alksnis Athletic and Recreation Building.
The Warriors had seven individual champions in
Kejavon Moore (60 meters),
Brandon Smiley (200m),
Derek White (400m), Cody Bailey (60mH),
Malik Johnson (Long Jump and Triple Jump),
Nathan Riley (Shot Put) and
Matteo Madrassi (Pole Vault) while the 4x800m relay of
Dillan Cerny,
Jamir Ferguson,
Alex Rodriguez and
Kudzanai Karawira came in first as well. Johnson was named the WHAC Newcomer of the Year while head coach
Doug Edgar was named the WHAC Coach of the Year for the seventh straight season.
Tech took the top six spots in the 60m (Moore,
John Jones, Bailey,
Logan Bloir,
Jesse Frimpong and Smiley) with all six running under a 6.97, while they had six of the eight placers in the 200m (Smiley, Moore,
Gairy Springer, Jones, Chale McLeod and White). The Warriors dominance in the sprints continued in the 400m as White, Springer and McLeod went 1-2-3 and breaking 51 seconds.
Qadir Muhammad and
Jamir Ferguson finished second and third in the 600m with times of 1:22.15 and 1:23.52, respectively, while Cerny was fourth in the 800m with a time of 1:58.65. Karawira was second in the mile and 1,000m with times of 4:23.01 and 2:32.62, respectively.
The senior distance trio of
Cayce Griffin,
Christian Corrion and
Anthony Frank went 2-4-5 in the 5,000m with times of 15:03.41, 15:31.38 and 15:37.17, respectively.
Madrassi earned the top performance of the meet by clearing 5.02m/16-5.5 in the pole vault to take first and claim the number one spot in the nation. His mark is the fourth best in program history. Tech had three of the top-four high jumpers at the meet with
Dylan Bikim, Keshawn McGill and
Peyton Phillips going 2-3-4 with marks of 2.08m-6-9.75, 2.02m/6-7.5, and 1.99m/6-6.25, respectively. McGill would also take second in the long jump while
Zavier Allen was second in the triple jump with marks of 7.06m/23-2 and 14.31m/46-11.5, respectively.
Tech now turns its attention to the 2019 NAIA National Indoor Championships February 28-March 2 in Brookings, South Dakota.
