By: by Emily Diekelmann
Full Results
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Closing out the first day of competition, the Kennesaw State men‘s track and field team holds a strong lead at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship. Setting personal and school bests, the squad has a commanding lead over second place ETSU.
“We looked strong in all of our events today,” head track and field coach Andy Eggerth said. “We had lifetime bests being broken and points being scored in every event. Where we sit right now, we have set ourselves up for being very successful in the remainder of the competition.”
Continuing to etch his name into the Kennesaw State record books, Anjoun Armaly broke his previous held school record in the long jump by five tenths of a meter. Landing at 7.36 meters, Armaly finished in second. His previous distance of 6.86 meters (22’ 6.07”) already set a record earlier this season at the Yellow Jacket Invitational.
The duo of Nabil Hamid and Jaakko Nieminen had a stellar evening in the 10,000 meter race. Switching positions throughout most of the race, they were able to overcome the pressure from ETSU and Campbell to finish in first and second. Hamid finished the race in 31:10.54 with Nieminen not far behind in 31.13.17.
The day began with the multi events. Brian Graham, DeMarcus Henley and Adam Reed all competed in the first five events of the decathlon. Leading the Owls, Graham finished first in the 100 and 400 meter races to put himself in second place for the first half of competition. Teammate Adam Reed got top billing in the shot put with an 11.67 meter throw.
In his last conference meet as an Owl, Josh McNair made sure he wouldn’t be easily forgotten, adding two more All-Conference awards to his name. McNair finished second in the shot put with a top throw of 15.42 and third in the hammer throw with 51.02 meters
Having the preliminary trials for the 110 meter hurdles and 100 meter dash today, all of the Kennesaw State runners that competed were able to qualify for the finals on Saturday. Kendall Parks get a shot at breaking his already held 110 meter hurdles school record. Parks will join Jemir Martinez and Antonio Logan in the 100 meter dash as well.
