Eastern dominated at home last week at their annual John Craft invitational and now are going back on the road to Bloomington, Ind. for the Indiana Relays.

The event is a unique experience for the athletes since it takes place over two days; beginning on Friday Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. and then continues at 8:20 a.m. the next day. Both days will start off with track events and have field events later in the meet.

With only a few more meets left in the indoor season this one will be a good test for the track and field team due to the size of this large meet of 12 teams; besides the University of Indiana teams include Western Illinois, Louisville, SIUE, Southern Illinois, DePaul, SEMO, Tennessee Tech, Miami (Ohio), Tulane, and North Central.

Eastern has been on a hot streak as of late, winning its home meet and having performed well at the Illini Classic. Going into the Indiana Relays will look to continue their winning ways.

In the previous meet there were many successes with eleven individual first place finishes with some being senior thrower Bryn Buckwalter and sophomore thrower Adam Kessler, both swept the shot put and weight throw events with distances of 49’05” and 54’02.5” respectively in the shot put, then 55’10.25” and 53’07.5” respectively in the weight throw.

Other success was found in the jumps with junior Davion McManis taking first in the long jump with a mark of 23’03.5” and fellow jumper junior Chrisford Stevens also won first in the triple jump as he leaped a distance of 48’08.25”.

The greatest achievement made though goes to senior distance runner Riley McInerney, as he earned his second straight OVC male athlete of the week for his outstanding week at the John Craft Invite.

He won the mile with a OVC season best time of 4:09.20. It is his third time overall winning the award.

The next time the men and women of Eastern track and field will compete will be at the Meyo Invite at Notre Dame Feb. 3 and 4.

Alex Hartman can be reached at 581-2812 or smhastings@eiu.edu.