Jan. 27, 1998

Men's Track and Field Competes in Michigan Intercollegiate Championships

Head Coach:  Darroll Gatson (3rd year)
SID Contact: Russ Ormiston
Upcoming Events:  
Fri., Jan. 30, MICHIGAN INTERCOLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
	(Jenison Field House)

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS: @Red Simmons Invitational, Ann Arbor; no team scores

THE STATE INVADES STATE: Michigan State plays host to the 1998 Michigan Intercollegiate Championships, as this year's meet takes place Jan. 30 at Jenison Field House. The usual suspects facing MSU includes two of the top 15 teams in the country: #9 Michigan and #13 Eastern Michigan (as ranked by Trackwire.com). Joining the Spartans in an upset bid will be Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Detroit. EMU will be looking to defend last year's title, after they picked up 164 points to win the meet on their home track. Michigan State finished third, compiling 90 points.

LONG GOES LONG: Octavis Long flashed his sprinter speed en route to the 55-meter dash title at the non-scoring Red Simmons Invitational on Jan. 24 in Ann Arbor. Long got faster as the meet got longer, as he won his quarterfinal heat in 6.48 seconds. He followed that up by taking his semifinal heat with a mark of 6.37 seconds, before seizing the title in the finals by stopping the watch in 6.31 seconds. That was one-tenth of a second faster than runner-up Brad Fields, a former MSU All-American, who was running unattached.

OTHER SPARTANS IN ANN ARBOR: Other Spartan tracksters made an impact during Saturday's meet, including the freshman pole vault trio of Jake Diner, Paul Terek and Matt Deering. Diner took second with a mark of 16-6, while Terek, who broke the MSU pole vault record on Jan. 24 during his collegiate debut, finished third with an identical 16-6 performance. Deering finished seventh, making it over the bar at 15-0. Sophomore Okoineme Giwa-Agbomeirele continued his field event success, taking second in the long jump with a bound of 24-3 ½. Other Spartan standouts included Joe Leo (3rd, 4:14.98) and Mark Goodfellow (4th, 4:16.19) in the mile, as well as Matt Lafave (5th, 8:41.94) in the 3,000.

INDIANA QUINTET: While the Spartan squad was competing in Ann Arbor, a band of five 3,000-meter runners from MSU traveled to Indianapolis to enter their times at the Stan Lyons Open. Steve Schell took the top Spartan honors, finishing second in 8:13.47, the fastest 3k time this season by a MSU runner. Ryan Taylor (8:17.43), Jim Jurcevich (8:23.97), Jeff Ferrell (8:24.57) and Chris Wehrman (8:25.65) finished fourth through seventh, respectively.