Central State has 22 top-ten finishes at Wittenberg Tiger Invitational
 


SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – In Central State's opening meet of the indoor season, Marauder student-athletes combined to record 22 top-ten finishes during Saturday's Wittenberg University Tiger Invite.

 
Saturday marked the first competition for Central State track & field in over 658 days. Saturday was also the CSU head coaching debut for Elliott Lightfoot.

 
The CSU men finished 5^th place overall out of 12 teams with a total of 44 points while the women came in 6^th place out of 13 teams with a team score of 47.5 points.

 
The Marauder men totaled nine top 10 finishes. CSU's David Barfield took 2^nd place in the 60-meter dash (7.06) while teammate Demari Johnson came in 5^th (7.10). Jaheim Wilson finished 2^nd in the 60 meter hurdles (8.54) and 9^th in the long jump (6.05m/19" 10.25). Isreal Williamson recorded two top ten finishes with a 3rd place performance in the 400 meter run (50.27) and an 8^th place pace in the 200-meter race (23.01). Tramari Smith also earned points for CSU in the 400 meter run by coming in 5^th place (50.32). Chris Chandler finished in 10^th place in the 800 meter run, crossing the line in 2:11.71.

 
The men's 4 x 400-meter relay team comprised of Williamson, Hezekiah Reid, Johnson, and Lavano Sands recorded a time of 3:30.42 to come in 4^th place.

 
On the women's side, CSU totalled 12 top 10 finishes. Highlighting the afternoon for CSU women included performances by jumpers Reaghan Wakefield, Jaylin Bradshaw and Tylar Lightbourn. Wakefield came in 3^rd in the high jump with a mark of 1.58m (5' 2 ¼). Bradshaw and Lightbourn tied for 7^th with identical jumps of 1.53m (5' 0 ¼). In the long jump, Ajanae' Cressey came in 5^th place with a leap of 4.97m (16' 3 ¾) with Bradshaw following up with a jump of 4.92m (16' 1 ¾).

 
Kayla Huston finished 3^rd in the 60 meter hurdles with a time of 9.50. Huston led a trio of top ten finishers in the 400 meter run with a 4^th place time of 1:01 followed by Kapri Dawkins in 5^th (1:02.17) and Bradshaw in 10^th (1:02.89). Lightbourn earned points for the team in the 60 meter and 200 meter sprints. She ran a time of 7.96 to finish 5^th in the 60m and finished 4^th in the 200m with a pace of 26.69. Dawkins came in 8^th place in the 200m at a pace of 26.69.


The women's 4 x 400-meter relay team of Dawkins, Huston, Renee Bruce and Bradshaw ran the race in 4:18.22 for a 2^nd place result.


"We gained a lot of great experience as a team at Wittenberg. We have a young group and many were competing on the college level for the very first time. I thought we had some solid performances and also some learning moments," Lightfoot said. "We are looking forward to correcting some of our mistakes and continuing to gain experience at our upcoming meet this Friday."
 

 
CSU will continue the indoor track and field season this Friday at the Wabash College Horace Turner Invite in Crawfordsville, Indiana.


 
For full results from Saturday's Wittenberg Invite, visit - https://www.tfrrs.org/results/70912/Wittenberg_Opener/