With one last trial before the Mid-American Conference tournament, Kent State track and field proved how dangerous the team could be at the Kent State Tune-Up event on Saturday, Feb. 21.

In one of the biggest events from the afternoon, junior weight thrower Matthias Tayala broke his previous school record in the weight throw with a throw of 22.60 meters, or 74’ 1.75” which beat his previous record of 72’ 6.25” by almost 2 feet.

Even with the broken record, he still fell to second in the event.

Tayala was humble about the accomplishment and was more focused on how it would help him in the future.

“I felt like it was a good tune-up meet before conference and nationals,” Tayala said. “I’m excited for the next three weeks.”

Tayala also registered a fourth-place finish in the shot put at 16.44 meters.

Junior William Barnes also had a good day in the 60-meter hurdles, winning the preliminaries and then the 60-meter hurdle event finals with a time of 7.80 seconds.

“It was a good race, but I’m a little bummed because I wanted to break the facility record,” Barnes said. “Other than that though, it was a good time, and I’m pretty confident heading into MAC championships.”

Junior Roosevelt Dotson also managed a win in the men’s high jump with a height of 2.10 meters.

“After the performance today, I am pretty confident about what I can do,” Dotson said.

Junior Jesse Oxley rounded out the first-place finishers for the men’s squad, as he took the pole vault event with a score of 5.18 meters.

On the women’s side, senior Jackie Leppelmeier set the tone when she won the women’s weight throw event with a mark of 19.90 meters.

“Today, we were really trying to build towards conference next week and get on the upwards swing,” Leppelmeier said. “It was pretty cool to win, and it is exciting because everybody is doing well right now.”

Sophomore Morgan Estes followed up a great week last week and won the pole vault event with a score of 3.98 meters. Freshman Sam Tollerud followed in second at 3.83 meters, and redshirt junior Becca Herte rounded out the top three at 3.83 meters.

Junior Dior Delephont continued her strong season with a win in the high jump at 1.84 meters.

Junior Danniel Thomas won the shot put event with a mark of 16.83 meters.

Junior Rachel Slingluff dominated competition with a win and a score of 10:15.21 in the 3000-meter run, and junior Hannah Fleck won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:10.26. Freshman Tyler Williams won the 400-meter dash at 56.28 seconds.

The 4×400-meter relay team of sophomore Jorian Ordway, junior Taylor Farquhar, sophomore Lauren Burnett and Williams won the relay event in 3:47.91.

Both teams will head to Mount Pleasant, Michigan on Friday and Saturday for the MAC Championships.

Contact Andrew Bugel at [email protected].