EOU's Day 2 Roundup at the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.- Headlines on the men's side; A lost shoe, a fish story, a close call, a finalist and and All-American.
Day two was entertaining, if not nerve-racking for the EOU track and field program back here. In regards to the above headline, they unfolded as follows:
The Lost Shoe:
Men's Mile -- Zach Heath ran in the second heat of the semifinals. Heath came off the line only to have another competitor spike the back of his heel (punching a hole in his shoe) and pull it off. He ran the rest of the race with one shoe on. While he ran tough, he was unable to make the finals.
The Fish Story:
Mitch Wheelhouse had two strong throws in the first round of the 35 lb. weight. Unfortunately, both of the them were rare for Wheelhouse: left side line sector fouls. His third throw was a solid mark, but not enough to make finals.
The Close Call:
Lucas Ohmes had a great meet, but in the end came up a mere 12 points out of All American honors in the heptathlon with a seventh-place finish. Ohmes scored about 300 points more than he did to qualify.
The Finalist:
2006 All-American Adam Goulet earned another shot at All-American honors in the 1,000 meter run when he squeaked into the Saturday final with the final qualifying spot of eighth. He was a mere .02 of a second ahead of ninth.
The All American:
Chris Hoppie ended the heptathlon with an All-American finish of fourth place -- just a few points shy of his qualifying mark and about a 100 points ahead of last year's winning total. Hoppie was fighting a sore foot from the second jump of the second event of the competition on Thursday (the long jump), so his performance was even more impressive. Hoppie also came back shortly after the finish of the heptathlon to jump well in the long jump (his second best jump ever).
Women:
EOU had two female competitors today. The first, Marcella Bosch in the 3,000 meter run, came in ranked 14th and finished 16th, just about half a second out of 14th and a little over three seconds out of 12th and qualifying for the final.
The other performer was Cayla Weissert in the pole vault. Weissert performed well, only four centimeters off her lifetime best. Weissert cleared the opening height on her first attempt with a very clean jump. The bar then went up 15 centimeters (what would have been a new personal best and left her in contention for All-American). Weissert's third attempt was a very near miss.