Fayette, Mo 3/19/2022- The Westminster men's track and field team traveled to Fayette, Missouri to compete in their first outdoor track meet of the season in the Central Methodist University Open. The Blue Jays competed against twelve of the best NCAA and NAIA schools in the state of Missouri. They would tie for twelfth overall with 14 team points.
Seniors Devonte Hubbard (Lee's Summit, Mo/ Grandview Christian) and Dexter Allen (St. Louis, Mo/ St. Louis University) would get the day started in the long jump. Hubbard placed first overall with a jump of 6.65 meters and 6.60 meters, scoring 10 team points. Allen tied for tenth place, with a jump of 6.25 meters and 5.85 meters, scoring 1 team point. Hubbard's 6.60 mark breaks a Westminster College modern outdoor record. The old record was 5.98 meters, set by C.J. Vaughn on April 27th, 2013 at Illinois College. The all-time school record is 7.29 meters, held by Keith Journey, who set the record in 1977.
Next up would be the discus event, and the Blue Jays would have three athletes competing. Brayden Isgriggs (Cadet, Mo / Patosi) placed sixth with a throw of 38.08 meters and scored 3 team points. P.J. Bledsoe (Eldon, Mo / Eldon)placed seventeenth with a throw of 31.23 meters. Tucker Brown (Cuba, Mo / Cuba) placed nineteenth with a throw of 31.05 meters.
Brown would compete in the javelin throw and placed thirteenth overall with a throw of 33.60 meters. Brown also competed in the shot put, his third event of the day, and placed twentieth overall. He had a throw of 9.65 meters and 10.19 meters.
DeAndre White (Salisbury, Mo. / Salisbury R-4) placed sixteenth overall in the shot put with a throw of 11.76 meters and 11.16 meters
This wrapped up the field portion of the event and the track events began.
Michael Giles (Pleasant Hill, Ill. / Pleasant Hill) and Lane Martin (Lexington, Mo / Lexington) both competed in the 1500-meter run. Giles placed twenty-ninth overall with a time of 4:30.40. Martin finished in fifty-first place with a time of 5:00.89. Giles also competed in the 800-meter run and he placed tenth overall with a time of 2:12.15 in qualifying and 2:09.43 in the finals.
Ben Wallace (Chicago, IL / Thornton Fractional South) ran in the 100-meter dash and would finish in twenty-eighth place with a time of 11.90 in qualifying and 12.23 in the finals. He would also run in the 200-meter dash and would finish fortieth overall with a time of 25.17 in qualifying and 25.47 in the finals.
Martin would wrap things up for the men's track and field team in the 3000-meter run. He would place twenty-seventh overall with a time of 11:26.39.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on April 1st and 2nd when they head back to Central Methodist to compete in the CMU Invite.
