Senior Kandace Arnold doesn’t like competing at home. For red-shirt senior Dave Holm, it’s a chance for his parents to watch him compete.

Saturday’s Big Blue Classic at O’Brien Field saw the season’s final home meet for the Eastern track and field teams. The meet also saw the return of red-shirt sophomore Zye Boey, who hadn’t competed since the 2009 NCAA outdoor national championships.

Arnold, Holm and Boey and the rest of the Panthers combined to post 17 wins and numerous second-place finishes through the three-day meet.

Holm didn’t disappoint his parents, who drove down from Calgary, Alberta, to see him compete in Charleston for the last time. He took second place in the 800-meter run, helped the 3,200-meter relay team to a first-place finish and also ran on the 1,6000-meter relay ‘B’ team. Holm was beaten at the last second by former Illinois runner Gary Miller in the 800-meter run. Holm received the baton in the 3,200-meter relay a few feet ahead, meters in front of his Rend Lake competitor, but opened up the gap to leave no doubt and plenty of distance for the anchor leg for the winning squad.

His parents are teachers and had spring break this past week. They made the two-day drive to see Dave compete for the past two weekends. They watched him at practice and got to spend much time with Dave and his teammates.

“I’m proud of all work he’s done and the effort he’s put in,” his mom, Cathy said. “I know he’s really dedicated and trains hard.”

His mom said she’s has seen three of Holm’s meets before the Big Blue Classic and the EIU Invitational this season.

His parents will also make the trek to Cookeville, Tenn., to see him compete at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships in May. If Holm reaches the national championships in Eugene, Ore., in June they’ll be there too.

At least that will be shorter distance for his parents. Cathy said they would fly rather than drive for that event. For Holm, his progress to get there has been slowed because of an unknown sickness that took him out for a couple weeks after the cross country season.

Holm, who competed at the 2009 NCAA indoor national championships, is striving to get back to that form. He feels he’s almost there

“I’ve been coming around now,” Holm said. “I’m feeling healthy now.”

Holm said he probably shouldn’t have run at the NCAA Regionals during the cross country season, but didn’t think better of it, and doctors never figured out what was wrong.

Holm was told it wasn’t mono, but doctors also told him the illness could have been swine flu, but even that was a definitive diagnosis.

Holm knew that he had low amounts of energy.

“I’ve never really got an answer to what it was,” he said.

In other action, Arnold finished second in the shot put and obtained the outdoor shot put record with a throw of 49 feet, 6.5 inches breaking Valeta Strickland’s 1987 mark. She furthered her own school record in the discus with a throw of 155’02”.

“It was my last home meet, so I was there mentally,” Arnold said. “I really, really wanted to get that school record.”

Arnold now owns five school records: the outdoor shot put, the outdoor hammer throw, discus, the indoor shot put and the indoor 20-pound weight throw.

Although it was her last home meet, Arnold didn’t mind.

“I really like don’t like competing at home,” she said. “I like competing at other schools. I don’t know why.”

Arnold said she doesn’t mind competing at home during the indoor season, but still can’t figure out why she doesn’t like the outdoor season at home. Although, all of her outdoor records have come this year at home.

But Arnold said she wants to continue to break her own records to help the team and so her name will stay up on the program record list a little bit longer.

Although not his last home meet, Boey made his first return to the track since the 2009 NCAA outdoor national championships. He had knee surgery in January. Boey won the 100-meter dash in his only event on Saturday in 10.68 seconds.

“It feels great,” Boey said of his return. “(The knee is) still a little sore. As athletes, we have to deal with pain. I’m pretty sure in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be a lot stronger.”

In other action, red-shirt senior Shawana Smith won the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash and helping the 400-meter relay team to a win. Junior Darren Patterson and senior Marcus Williams picked up wins in the 200- and 400-meter dashes, respectively. Red-shirt senior Chandra Golden won the 100-meter hurdles, and sophomore Olivia Klaus won the 5,000-meter run.

The women’s 1,600- and 3,200-meter relay teams also won. Junior Chad Aubin won the 400-meter hurdles, and freshman Liz Dole won the 10,000-meter run.

In field events: sophomore Queenie Adeboyejo won the triple jump, freshman Jamiee Roy won the long jump, red-shirt senior Dorrian White won the pole vault and senior Tyler Arnholt won the discus.

The Panthers return to action on Friday at Western Illinois Lee Calhoun Invitational in Macomb.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or kjmurphy@eiu.edu.

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