Team returns home for Mega Meet

Tyler Arnholt, a red-shirt senior, participates in the weight throw competition during the Early Bird Meet Dec. 10 in the Lantz Fieldhouse. (Audrey Sawyer/The Daily Eastern News)

This weekend the Eastern track and field team will return to Lantz Fieldhouse for the EIU Mega Meet. 

The EIU Mega Meet will be the team's third meet of the indoor season and second of the spring semester.

Competing alongside the Panthers will be Chicago State, Greenville, and Memphis, as well as the women's team from Ohio Valley Conference rival Murray State and the men's team from St. Xavier. Various members of the Big River Running Co., HAM, Illinois XC and Track Club, Indiana Invaders, and Steeple-Web will also be competing at the event.

After two consecutive weeks of earning Ohio Valley Conference Male Track Athlete of the Week awards, red-shirt junior Zye Boey will look to put on another first-place performance. 

Boey currently ranks third on the NCAA list for the 200-meter dash and 24th on the NCAA list for the 60-meter dash. Boey leads the Ohio Valley Conference in both of those categories. 

It was in Lantz Fieldhouse at the EIU Early Bird meet in December where Boey set his 6.75 60-meter dash mark. Boey missed the 2010 indoor season with a knee injury, but said his knee is at about 90 percent healthy.

Red-shirt freshman pole-vaulter Mick Viken has a first place finish and second place finish in his last two meets. Viken's pole-vaulting mark of 16' 9.5" currently ranks 14th in the NCAA and first in the Ohio Valley Conference. Viken recorded his best mark in Lantz Fieldhouse at the EIU Early Bird.

The distance medley team of red-shirt senior Wes Sheldon, senior Chad Aubin, junior Reid Basting, and freshman Ryan Ballard took a first place finish at last week's Badger Track Classic and are looking for a repeat result this week. The team is currently ranked 21st in the NCAA.

"It should be pretty fun for our second meet at home. We're looking for some good performances again and hopefully it will continue and give us some momentum going into the other bigger meets down the road," Ballard said.

Also at the EIU Mega Meet will be a special presentation honoring former Eastern athlete and coach John Craft. Craft graduated from Eastern in 1969 and still holds the school record for the outdoor triple jump at 53'9. After graduating from Eastern, Craft went on to win multiple AAU indoor and outdoor championships, as well as setting American triple jump records in both indoor and outdoor competition.

Craft would then go on to compete for the U.S. Olympic team and took fifth in the triple jump event at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The EIU Mega Meet begins at 9 a.m, with the retiring of a jersey to honor John Craft at noon. After competing at the Mega Meet, the Panthers will hit the road again and travel to the University of Illinois for the Illinois Intercollegiate on Jan. 29.



Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7944 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu