The Sun Belt Conference announced Marshall Track and Field swept the conference Athlete of the Week awards.
Kylee Mastin and Peter Oliveira won Sun Belt Conference Women’s and Men’s Track Athlete of the Week honors following their performances at the Marshall Alumni Classic on Saturday, Jan. 11.
Women’s shot putter Rebecca Merritt and men’s long jumper Addison Painter were named the SBC Women’s and Men’s Field Athletes of the Week with a pair of wins that day as well.
Merrit won the Women’s Shot-Put event, recording a throw of 13.49 meters at the Marshall Alumni Classic.
Marshall swept the top three for the Men’s Long Jump with Grant Swider recording a jump of 6.97 meters coming in second, and Cole Miller recording a jump of 6.96 meters coming in third.
“I thought there were some good performances today,” Keith Roberts, the director of Track and Field, said. “Coming off a break and a crazy week where people were stranded at home and figuring out how they were going to get here, but they came in and had no excuses.”
“We had some school records broken today; some freshmen doing some big things that haven’t been done here in a long time, and then some upperclassmen leading the charge and setting performances that will get us into the season and get ready for a great conference championship,” Roberts said.
On Jan. 17, Marshall competed at the Vanderbilt Invitational, which is the first SEC Indoor Track and Field meet for Marshall in seven years. The team broke two school records.
Painter broke his personal record of the season with a recorded long jump of 7.86 meters, which is a new Marshall school record. The Women’s Distance Medley Relay, comprised of Kylee Mastin, Brynn McKeever, Mckenna Woodruff, and Hanna Wyler, ran for a time of 11 minutes and 42.46 seconds, which placed the team in second place and also broke another Marshall school record.
Another notable performance for Marshall was in the Women’s Weight Throw (Open) where Merritt threw a recorded distance of 19.44 meters, which placed second for the event.
The Marshall Track and Field team’s next meets will be the Bellarmine Classic at Bellarmine University Jan. 24.
Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected]
