By: by Emily Diekelmann
Full Results
CLEMSON, S.C. - The Kennesaw State men’s track and field team closed out their final meet of the season at Clemson on Saturday. Most of the athletes who competed were vying for a trip to NCAA Preliminaries which will be held at the end of May in Bloomington, Ind.
For the second straight week, senior Josh McNair set the new school record in shot put. Last weekend at the Florida State Twilight meet, McNair threw 17 meters but surpassed that just slightly with a 17.06 meter throw or 55 feet 11.65 inches. In order to qualify for prelims in a few weeks, an athlete must finish in the top 48. Currently, McNair sits in 39th with his distance from last weekend.
"Josh has been doing well in practice and working on a lot of technical aspects to his throw," throws coach Duane Morris said. "It's no surprise that he broke the school record but he still has a few meters in him. We are looking forward to unleashing them in the next few weeks."
Kendall parks continued his quest for the track postseason in the 110 meter hurdles. Sitting in eighth in the region, Parks backed up his success with a good run at Clemson. His time of 13.89 seconds was just four hundredths shy of his school record but still was able to give him a third place finish.
In his final meet as an Owl, Piotr Witczak finished strong in the 800 and 1,500 meter races. His time of 1:55.31 gave his second place in the unseeded 800 and 3:51.61 in the 1,500 was strong enough for sixth. Joining Witczak in the 800 were Cole Jackob, Kyle Pearson and Andrew Greeson who finished fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively.
Over on the field side, Jerome McKinzie finished in the top three in high jump. Clearing a top height of 2.04 meters, he nabbed himself a third place victory.
While this was the end of the season for most of the team, several of the men’s squad stands in a position to compete on May 26-28. Parks, McNair, Joshua James in the 400 meter hurdles, Brian Graham in the decathlon and Gianni Catalano in the 800 meters all sit 48th or above as of this weekend’s events.
The official list of declarations and accepted entries for the NCAA East Preliminary Round will be announced Monday, May 23, three days prior to the start of the meet in Bloomington, IN.
