Trailblazer Track and Field has big weekend at Bill Clinger Classic

ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Vincennes University Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams continued their great start to the 2023 Indoor season this weekend by taking part in the Bill Clinger Classic at Grand Valley State University Friday and Saturday.

The Trailblazers Men’s Track and Field team checked in this week at No. 16 in the first USTFCCCA National Rankings and did not disappoint this weekend.

Vincennes had a really good weekend from their throwers including sophomore Mason Harmes (Borden, Ind.) taking the top spot in the men’s weight throw with a final distance of 16.33 meters.

Harmes would also finish sixth in the shot put with a throw of 12.78 meters.

Harmes was joined in both events by fellow sophomore David Beadle (Jamaica) who placed fourth in the weight throw at 14.35 meters and fifth in the shot put at 13.19 meters.

Freshman Olegs Kozjakovs (Riga, Latvia) competed in his first heptathlon of the season and looked strong as well, placing fourth after coming away with 4,210 points.

“We had an outstanding weekend,” VU Head Track and Field Coach Marty Rogier said. “Almost everyone we took had a Personal Best or performed above expectations. The throws were led by Mason Harmes who had a huge PR in the weight throw, winning the event and qualifying for Nationals. His throw of 16.33 meters places him sixth on the NJCAA National Rankings. Mason really had a couple of big throws and I believe he has much more coming in the weeks ahead. David also made the finals in both the shot and weight and also had another very good meet.”

The VU men’s runners also picked up some scoring finishes this weekend, led by freshman Isaac Stanford (Flora, Ill.) who placed sixth in the 800-meter race with a final time of 1:54.06.

Sophomore Mathew Keitany placed seventh in the 3000-meter race, crossing the line with a time of 8:48.95.

Freshman Desroy Jordan (Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) rounds out the VU scorers with an eighth place finish this weekend in the 400-meter race. Finishing with a time of 49.40 seconds.

“We had a couple of new performers in the sprints this weekend and competed against a field of very fast sprinters,” Rogier added. “Justin Emmanuel ran a couple of quick times in the 60m and 200m and finished 14th in the 200. Desroy Jordan ran a very fast 49.40 in the 400 to finish 8th overall. These were both very good performances considering they just got on campus a couple of weeks ago and we approached this meet as a practice to see how they looked before trying to race.”

“Griffin Worzella, Ernest Momodu and Reed Lawless all got PRs in their races this weekend,” VU Assistant Track and Field Coach Tyler Steigenga said. “In a very competitive field of the 800 meter, Isaac placed sixth and ran a new PR, placing fourth on the VU All-Time list. Not long after that, Trent won his heat with a big kick in the last 200 meters to win by two seconds and place 11h overall and setting a new PR at 1:56.56. Both of those times are National Qualifying marks and Trent’s first individual National qualifier.”

“The last event for the distance runners went off at 9:30 p.m., where Mathew Keitany ran just off his PR to place seventh in the open 3000 meters,” Steigenga added. “Ian ran a half-second PR in the next heat and was joined by Ernest in his 3000 meter debut, running 9:20 in his second race of the day.”

The VU women’s team battled some tough competition all weekend as well, with freshman Julia Do Amaral Salvi (Sao Paulo, Brazil) leading the way for the team with an eighth-place finish in the pole vault after a jump of 3.58 meters.