The Omnibus

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Kelly Flowers Junior Michael Pierce holds off the competition on his way to victory in the mile at the MIAA Championships. Pierce will compete at the Division II National Championships next weekend.

The Southwest Baptist men's track and field team came into the indoor MIAA Championships with a goal of scoring 50 points and breaking the school record for most points scored at the indoor conference meet. Things did not go as planned for the Bearcats as they only managed 30 points this past weekend. The 30 points scored by SBU placed them seventh in the conference ahead of Truman State. Despite not meeting their team goal, there were some positives that came out of this weekend for the men's track and field team.
"Overall, I am so proud of every effort put forth this weekend," said Head Coach Corey McElhaney. "At the conference championships every race 800-meters and down has prelims the day before. This makes it very tough on the athletes."
One of the athletes running multiple races was junior Michael Pierce as he continued his preparations for the national meet in two weeks. On Friday, Pierce along with sophomore Shawn Etzenhouser qualified for finals in the 800-meter run.
Later that night, Pierce anchored the men's distance medley relay team (DMR). In the DMR, the Bearcats got off to a slow start despite being heavily favored in the event. Pierce received the baton in fourth place well behind three teams. Running the 1,600-meter leg of the relay, Pierce was able to chase down the Truman State and Missouri Southern teams on his way to a four minute, 12 second split. With the help of Pierce's strong effort, the Bearcat DMR team of Etzenhouser, junior Erik Johnson, freshman Nathaniel Rogers and Pierce finished second and received All-MIAA honors.
After qualifying in the 800 and anchoring the DMR, Pierce's weekend was only half over. On Saturday, Pierce went into the mile run as the favorite. After a pedestrian first quarter-mile, Pierce took control of the race and survived numerous surges from other runners in the final 400-meters to preserve the victory in four minutes, 18.14 seconds.
Also in the mile were sophomore Jeremy Glassmaker and junior Vince Tichenor, who just missed all-conference honors by placing seventh and eighth respectively.

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