For the second time this season, an Eastern men’s track and field athlete was named the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track Athlete of the Week.

Freshman distance runner Kevin Adamowski was a co-winner of the award along with freshman middle distance runner Dustin Davis from Southeast Missouri for the week of Jan. 22.

Adamowski finished in third place in the mile run with a time of 4 minutes, 19.68 seconds at the Mega Meet on Saturday. It was the third fastest by any runner in the OVC so far this season.

His time was nearly ten seconds faster than at the Early Bird meet on Dec. 8.

Senior jumper Obe Erueya previously won the honor for the week of Jan.9.

Eastern head track coach Tom Akers said Adamowski was also named co-top performers for the team with sophomore hurdler Pat Tortorici.

In addition, sophomore runner Jason Springer was named top competitor for the Eastern team for his performance in the 1000-meter run with a time of 2:29.56 – fifth best in Eastern history.

Panther’s on top of OVC

Although still early in the season, a number of Eastern athletes are on top of the OVC.

Senior hurdler Mike Embry’s time of 8.43 in the 60-meter hurdles is the best in the OVC so far this season. The Panthers have the top six times in the 60-meter hurdles league-wide.

Sophomore Jason Springer time of 1:55.58 in the 800-meter run and senior jumper Obe Eruteya’s marks of 6 feet, 7.75 inches in the high jump and 49’06.50″ in the triple jump are all also the best in the OVC.

For the women’s track team, junior sprinter Viotlet Nwordu’s time of 7.71 in the 60-meter run and junior hurdler Chandra Golden’s time of 8.80 in the 60-meter hurdles lead the OVC.

In field events, junior jumper Jenna Uhe mark of 39’01.25″ in the triple jump and sophomore thrower Kandace Arnold mark of 54’10.25″ in the 20-pound weight throw are tops in the OVC.

Eastern head women’s coach Mary Wallace said Arnold has opened up with two great performances so far this year and is excited about what she can do this season.

On the road

Both the men’s and women’s teams will be competing on the road at the Carle/Health Alliance Invitational at Illinois. This will be the first road meet for the Panthers.

“We had some good performances in our last meet, so I think we are off to a good start,” said head men’s track coach Tom Akers. “This meet will be smaller than the last one, but it will have the same quality.”

The women will be competing against OVC foe Tennessee State on Saturday. This will be the first meet this season where Eastern has competed against another OVC team.

Eastern looks to continue to improve after a successful showing at the EIU Mega Meet.

“I’m pleased with how we did at the Mega Meet,” Akers said. “We competed well and did a great job. We definitely did not take a step backward from our last meet.”

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or dscusack@eiu.edu.