Boey and Viken break records

Michelle Hartnett , a sophomore jumper, attempts the high jump Jan. 22 at the EIU Mega Meet in the Lantz Fieldhouse. Hartnett placed fifth in the event. (Danny Damiani | The Daily Eastern News)

Eastern's track and field team took its talents to Champaign for the Illinois Intercollegiate at the University of Illinois on Saturday. 

Eastern's men entered the meet ranked as the No. 11 team in the Midwest Region as ranked by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The host, Illinois competed in the meet with top five rankings in both the men's and women's divisions. 

Also competing at the event were Illinois State, DePaul, Western Illinois, Bradley, McKendree and Ohio Valley Conference rival Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

The University of Illinois won both the men's and women's team scores with scores of 255 in the men's division and 263 in the women's. The Eastern men placed second behind the Illini with a score of 149. The Eastern women placed third with a score of 78. The Panther women were behind Illinois State in the final rankings. Illinois State recorded a score of 131.

Leading the Panther men's team was red-shirt junior Zye Boey, who won both the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. Boey's 60-meter time of 6.70 seconds was enough to break the overall Illinois Intercollegiate record. The 6.70 time also surpassed Boey's former 60-meter dash time of 6.75 seconds. Boey beat out Andrew Riley of Illinois, who was a national champion hurdler the previous year. Teammate Jacob Mitchell took sixth in the event.

Boey also won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.14 seconds. Boey's time was good enough to break the Illinois Armory record of 21.20 seconds, set in 1995 by Derrick Thompson of Wisconsin. Boey's 200-meter time also automatically qualifies him for the NCAA Indoor Championships in March. Boey missed the entire indoor season last year with a knee injury, but said his knee is currently at about 90 percent.

Red-shirt freshman Mick Viken continued his winning ways since becoming a member of the Panther track and field team this season. The transfer from Wisconsin won the men's pole-vault with a mark of 17' 1", which ties the Eastern school record previously set by Kyle Ellis in 2007. Ellis is the current pole-vaulting coach for the Panthers.

Viken said that to break the school record was one of his goals for the season. Viken came one inch short at last week's EIU Mega Meet, where he recorded a mark of 17' 0".

Head coach Tom Akers was very excited about Viken coming into this season.

"We've got a red-shirt freshman transfer from Wisconsin, Mick Viken, who has looked really, really good, and I think he has got the potential to be a school record holder for us in his first season here at EIU," Akers said.

In the event, Viken beat out Illinois sophomore Steve Monte, who previously stated that Illinois would crush the Panthers.

"We're a Division-I Big Ten school for a reason, and we're going to crush Eastern this weekend," Monte said to the Daily Illini.

Monte took eleventh place in the event with a height of 14' 09".

The Panthers and the Illini will meet again next week when both squads travel to South Bend, Ind. for the Notre Dame Meyo Invite next Friday and Saturday.

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