HARPERSFIELD TOWNSHIP —
Athletes from Africa, Canada and all over the United States took refuge from the snow Saturday to compete in the second day of the Spire Division I Track and Field Invitational.
Ejigu Terefe, originally from Africa and a student at Eastern Michigan University, ran to victory late Friday evening with a time of 14:11 besting a former area resident by eight seconds in the 5,000 meter (3.1 miles) and was just one of many athletes competing from different countries.
Many local athletes participated in the meet as well.
Luke Grau, a former standout at Chardon High School who is presently at Walsh University after a career at the University of Pennsylvania, ran 14:15 finishing fourth of 28 in a stacked field that included runners from Texas, Syracuse, North Carolina, Buffalo and many other major track programs.
Guelph, a Canadian University, also brought a strong team to the event including Alex Genest who won the 3000 meter run with a time of 7:57. Genest is a standout on the Canadian national team who competed in the Steeplechase during the 2011 World Championship track meet.
Emil Heineking, another former standout at Chardon High School, served as a pacer for the 3000 meters Saturday as he prepares for a shot at the Olympic Trials scheduled for late June in Eugene, Oregon.
Heineking is finishing his last three credit hours at the University of Virginia on the Internet and training at Spire Institute with track and field director Charlie Powell. He said he will probably have to run a 13:40 in 5000 meters to make it to the trials.
The snow didn’t seem to bother some of the southern teams, including Florida State, who found their way to northeastern Ohio from Tallahassee.
“We knew it was an incredible facility,” Florida State coach Bob Bruman said. “We wanted to come up to a big time meet.” “It was interesting for me to drive,” he said of his 20-mile trip to the track from the team hotel.
Keith Whitman, an Ashtabula and Kent State University graduate, has coached track and field at the collegiate level for more than two decades but was excited to just bring his son to watch a meet this weekend.
“It is nice to see some Division I track,” Whitman said.
Coaches were also excited about the event.
“This is fantastic,” said Jermaine Jones, the weight coach for Indiana University.
Doug Molnar came all the way back to his Ohio roots to give Charlene Gray a chance to compete against excellent competition in the 800 meters. Molnar grew up in Lorain and competed at West Virginia University before becoming a collegiate coach at Austin Peay.
“We left everybody else at home,” Molnar said. “This is (a) fantastic (the facility). This was the reason we came.”
Mark Yocum, boys track coach at Harvey High School, arrived early to check out the college meet before several of his athletes competed in a night high school invitational designed for college coaches to take a look at some young prospects.
“This is the kind of stuff (track competition) you usually have to watch on TV,” Yocum said. “I have kids that just want to come out and watch. We’ve been coming out here to practice once a week.
“Having this kind of facility is fantastic for all the area programs.”
Lakeside freshmen Abby Licate and Megan Abrams were excited to see their first college track meet.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for weeks,” Abrams said.
Licate said it was exciting to hear how well Ohio State sophomore Mallory Kreider ran on Friday evening after graduating from Edgewood High School in 2010.
“It is just amazing how far she got,” she said.
Sports
Related Photos
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KRISTEN BROWN of Virginia Tech finished second in the 60-meter hurdles Saturday during the Spire 2012 Division I Track and Field Invitational in Harpersfield Township. WARREN DILLAWAY
Discussion
Diverse competition
Worldwide athletes gather at Spire
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