Track team finishes 9th, 12th in MAC Indoor Championship

Marshall's men's and women's track teams finished in ninth and 12th place, respectively, Saturday at the Mid-American Conference Indoor Championship.

Host Eastern Michigan won both titles.

The men tallied 31.5 points, its highest point total at the conference championship.

Marshall Coach Jeff Small said surprise performances from freshman Arthur West and junior Josh Bradford helped the Thundering Herd make its best showing to date.

"They weren't even in the Top 15 going into the meet," Small said.

"Arthur finished sixth in the long jump and Josh seventh in the pole vault, so they helped us take it up a notch."

Junior James Kneeland became Marshall's first-ever male MAC track champion when he won the 800-meter run, setting a new conference championship record with a time of 1:52.09. Junior Casey Batey won second place in the mile with a time of 4:14.60.

Also scoring points for the men's team were senior Andrew Blair, who placed sixth in the 60-meter dash and senior David Lyle, who finished seventh in the 800-meter run.

Marshall's women's team was led by senior Becky Pouch, who finished 10th in the mile with a personal best time of 5:10.00.

Also with strong showings for Marshall were freshman April Craver, who had a season-best shot put throw of 12.51 meters, and sophomore Caroline Fleek, who had a season-best time of 1:00.74 in the 400-meter run.

Junior Meghan Rawlings and senior Kari Velasco completed the 800-meter run in 2:22.35 and 2:24.18, respectively.

Small said he was pleased with the women's performance.

"They have had an unbelievable amount of bad luck with injuries and illness," he said. "The girls we took, probably 80 percent of them had the best performance of the year, which is what we were asking of them."