This past weekend, Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, Oakland’s track and field team took a long drive to South Bend, Indiana, to participate in the Meyo Invitational.
The meet brings in schools from all over the Midwest to compete against each other as the track and field season gets kicked off. The other half of the track and field team went to Saginaw Valley State University to compete in the Jet’s Pizza Invitational.
The women’s field events were first to take place on Friday. Oakland had two entries into the shot put: Junior Jamie Giese had a season-best put of 12.99 meters, earning her an 11th-place finish. Sophomore Elizabeth Rice followed her in 22nd with an 11.07 meter put.
Men’s shot put closely followed, and OU did not disappoint. The incredible Alex Mansfield continued his stellar start to his year with a fifth-place finish, a 16.47 meter put. Senior Romario Jackson earned another top-10 finish, coming in 10th place with a season-best 14.43 meter put.
Next was the qualifying round for the 60-meter race. For the women, Oakland’s Lauren Goodman, who’s just a freshman, finished in seventh in 7.72 seconds. OU dominated on the men’s side of things, with junior Julian Bailey taking first and freshman Evan Bryan claiming third. Bryan ran a personal best time of 7.04 seconds.
The next day, in the final round of the 60-meter race, Bailey came in sixth, finishing the race in 6.9 seconds. In the semifinals and finals preliminary race for the women’s 60-meter, Goodman placed 11th, followed by sophomore Ke’Vina Finch in 13th. Neither would advance to the finals.
Sophomore Kyleigh Anderson had a strong showing in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, placing fifth in the finals with a season-best 8.73 seconds.
Moving on to the 200-meter races, these Golden Grizzlies had some particularly strong races. The Oakland men earned two top-ten finishes, with Bailey again leading the way in third with a personal-best 21.69 seconds, while senior Ja-Van Poole came in ninth. Finch, for the women’s team, turned on the jets for a third-place finish of her own.
Poole picked up the best finish of any Golden Grizzly all day, claiming second in the men’s 400-meter open race. Brothers Michael and Anthony Hancock did well in the men’s 1-mile open, with Michael coming in fourth with a personal-best time of 4:04.67. Anthony finished in 11th, roughly five seconds behind the elder Hancock.
For the men’s 3000-meter open, senior Yami Albrecht came just outside the top 10, finishing 11th. Erin Hegarty on the women’s team earned an eighth-place finish in the 5000-meter, running a season-best 16:43.02!
Finally, we had the men’s and women’s weight throws. Mansfield and Jackson again performed well; Jackson took second with 17.69 meters, while Mansfield came in 10th. For the women, Rice took 10th, and Giese took 15th.
In total, Oakland had 17 personal or season bests at the Meyo Invitational. Although the Golden Grizzlies didn’t compete in every event, each athlete’s performance all added up to make the weekend a very successful trip.