Story has been corrected that Kittridge did not set the EIU weight throw record. He set a personal record. 

The men’s track and field team came back to claim the Ohio Valley Conference Championship title after a rough day-one performance last Saturday.

The Panthers ended the first leg of the meet in second overall and two points under Southern Illinois-Edwardsville while the women maintained first place into the second day. The men’s team inched past Tennessee State with 141 final team points, surpassing Tennessee by 21 points. The women toppled the likes of Tennessee Tech with 121 points.

Senior Paxson Menard said that team support and broken records are what made the difference in day two.

“Being there for one another made a difference, and a lot of the members really stepped up the second day with running some of their personal bests,” Menard said.

With just seven teams competing on the men’s side, competition was tight. The fact that all but two distance races were held on the second day of the meet may have factored into Eastern’s struggles at the start of conference match ups as the Panthers have held strong performances in such events all season.

However, Eastern provided strong performances in the middle- and shorter distance races.

In the 60-meter dash preliminaries, four Panthers dominated as they took the first through fourth slots in the race. Seniors Jamal Robinson and Johnathan Boey each won their heats and took first and second overall with qualifying times of 6.79 seconds and 6.80 seconds, respectively. Junior Davion McManis (6.87) took third, followed by sophomore Brandan Lane (6.91) in fourth.

Boey and Robinson proved themselves yet again in the second round as Boey finished the finals in first place with a time of 6.74 seconds, and Robinson finished right after his teammate with a time of 6.76 seconds.

McManis recorded his personal best long jump mark at the conference meet at 7.67 meters, but it just wasn’t enough to win the event. McManis took third behind Tennessee State’s Kareem Nicholas and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville’s Julian Harvey.

Senior Riley McInerney earned second place in the mile run to add the men’s last top-three finish of the meet with a time 4 minutes, 10.21 seconds.

Field events saw of its first big successful dual performances on the second day by teammates senior Riley Kittridge and sophomore Adam Kessler. Kessler placed first in the shot put when he recorded the top toss of 58’05.50. Kittridge earned a silver medal with his 57’02” throw.

Kittridge earned an additional medal in the weight throw on the first day with a third place finish. His throw set a new personal record of 58’0.25”.

Senior John Piper received a day-two gold medal in the 60-meter hurdles after crossing the finish line just .07 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Jemarruse Amos of Tennessee State who had a time of 8.14 seconds.

Menard said that his favorite moment of the meet was the excitement of the score announcements because it felt terrific.

“(My favorite part) had to be when they were announcing the scores because it was very silent until they announced the women and men won the championship,” Menard said.

Next up for the track and field team is a possible trip to the NCAA Indoor Championship for qualifying individuals. The outdoor season begins March 25 at Southern Illinois-Carbondale.

Kaitlin Cordes can be reached at 581-2812 or krcordes@eiu.edu