Motivated, supported Kent State men's track and field team claims MAC outdoor title

At long last, the grand plan to claim a Mid-American Conference Outdoor Track and Field title fell into place for Bill Lawson’s Kent State men’s squad.

The Golden Flashes had finished among the top three at the MAC outdoor meet 11 times since Lawson took over the program in 2005-06, highlighted by three consecutive runner-up showings from 2011-13, but had never been able to break through and claim a crown until last weekend in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The Flashes led the 2022 MAC men’s meet wire-to-wire, pulling away on the final day to win by 41 points over runner-up Eastern Michigan.

“We’ve had so many heartbreaks. We probably should have had another five titles on the men’s side outdoors, but it’s been just one thing after another,” said Lawson. “What I was most impressed with is that we won this championship with balance. We scored in every event. We also scored in every event indoors. That shows true balance in a program. That’s my philosophy, to have a balanced team. That was really cool to see every coach contribute, every event area contribute. That made it special to me, to see how well we worked together as a group and got it done.”

Last year Kent State’s women’s team engineered a stunning upset win at the MAC Outdoor Championships, after finishing sixth indoors. Although the Flashes men’s squad placed just fourth at last year’s outdoor championships and third at this year’s MAC indoor meet, Lawson believed his program had the weapons required to secure the 2022 outdoor crown.

“We fully expected to be in the hunt based on last year’s recruiting class, and also adding a few athletes mid-year this season,” said Lawson. “It’s a group of guys that have been close, and they’re hungry. All they’ve talked about this year is getting it done in Kalamazoo. We had too many upperclassmen that had been disappointed in past championships. They just weren’t going to be denied.

“We had it projected that we could win, we just had to execute. And we did.”

Here’s a look at how things unfolded for the victorious Kent State men's track and field team in Kalamazoo.

Day 1 (Thursday): Flashes score 42 points

Kent State started the meet with a win in the hammer throw, but it was much more difficult than expected.

The Flashes had the overwhelming event favorite in senior Jake Wickey, fresh off a national runner-up finish indoors in the weight throw.

“We were thinking he’d probably put it out of reach on his first throw. But he struggled,” said Lawson. “He could not find the rhythm in that particular ring, which happened to be kind of slow, and for the better throwers slow is not good. At one point he was sitting in sixth place. It was so nerve-wracking. Then he hit his last throw to win by only 12 centimeters. In the throwing world that’s not very much.

“If that had gone wrong, that could have set a whole different mentality. That win was big.”

The Flashes quickly tacked on 10 points in the pole vault, with grad student Lukas Van Der Watt finishing second and grad student Jacob Mally taking fifth. Then, although sophomore Scott Benco fell short of defending his MAC javelin crown, he finished second followed by junior teammate Bradley Heck in third place for 14 more points.

“Then the big push came from Nick Stricklen,” said Lawson.

Stricklen, a former all-conference runner at Akron who joined the Kent State program as a graduate assistant coach last August, decided late last fall to use his final year of outdoor eligibility in 2022. Stricklen finished second in the 10,000 meters, giving the Flashes eight points.

“He ran a fantastic, strategically planned 10,000 meters on Thursday night and got second place. That was just a huge lift and boost to the team,” said Lawson. “That really motivated the team and put us in great position.”

Kent State scored 42 points on day one, six more than Eastern Michigan.

“We scored more points on that first day than we had anticipated,” said Lawson. “I don’t think we’ve ever been in that good of a position in the outdoor championships after day one. It was simply amazing.”

Day 2 (Friday): Kent State pad its lead with 44 more points

Sophomore Nolan Landis got day two off to a solid start for Kent State by finishing third in the shot put. Then junior Del’Mario Hairston fueled the fire with a somewhat surprising triumph in the long jump, winning by a half of an inch.

“He’s been looming for a couple years, and puts together a huge jump to take the lead on his fifth jump and wins,” said Lawson. “That was a rallying point, a fantastic moment in time, very motivating to everyone. At that point I think the team fully believed that we could win this championship."

Later in the day sophomore Alexander Shields and Mally completed a 1-2 finish in the decathlon that produced 18 more points, then Stricklen supplied another runner-up effort in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Kent State finished day two with 86 points, building a commanding 29-point lead over the Eagles.

“I thought going in if we could have 70 points and 12 qualifiers after day two, we could win the meet. We had 86 points and 17 qualifiers,” said Lawson. “We were literally in a position where we could make mistakes on the final day and still win. I don’t think we’ve been in a position like that on the men’s side outdoors.”

Day 3 (Saturday): Flashes cruise to MAC title

Landis opened day three by winning the discus, and the points just kept coming in bunches for the Flashes.

“It all just started lining up on the final day,” said Lawson. “[Senior] Asa Hodrick was a war horse. That guy would just get up and run, get up and run, get up and run — prelims, finals, 4x1 and 4x4 [relays].”

Hodrick won the 100 meters, took second in the 200 meters, and was a member of the winning 4x100 relay team.

"It wasn’t just [Hodrick],” said Lawson. “(Junior Jonathan) Solomon getting second with a lifetime [personal best] in the 400 was huge. Those decathletes came back and did a great job in the [110] hurdles [Shields 3rd, Mally 5th]. [Sophomore] Ethan Yost in the 800 [4th], [junior] Jaheim Jones [3rd in 100, 4th in 200, member of winning 4x100 relay] ... We usually never score in the 5,000 meters, and [sophomore] Joe Farley breaks into the top three in an event Eastern Michigan usually dominates. That was amazing.

“Last year we scored zero points in the men’s distance events. This year we scored 32.”

Freshman Alexandre Malanda was the runner-up in the triple jump, and graduate student Anthony Milliner posted a personal-best in the MAC meet for the third straight year to finish fourth.

Kent State’s three winter semester additions — Malanda, Landis and Stricklen — combined to score 46 points. Alex Bloom, KSU’s assistant coach in charge of horizontal jumps and multi-sport athletes, was named MAC Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year after being added to the staff just last August. Flashes under his direct tutelage scored 66 points.

“This would have not gotten done without the vision of [Kent State] President [Todd] Diacon and the influx of energy that [Director of Athletics] Randale Richmond has brought back to our athletic program,” said Lawson. “His energy has trickled down to senior administration, support staff, sports supervisors. Randale Richmond himself is responsible for at least 30 points on our men’s side, just by being who he is.”

Lawson was named MAC Coach of the Year after steering the Flashes to a dominating victory (196 team points). He has now earned 13 titles at Kent State while in charge of the cross country/men’s and women’s track and field programs, with one finally coming on the men's side outdoors.

“I don’t know that I was doing anything differently as the director this year. We had a great staff, tremendous support, and the kids really wanted to win,” said Lawson, whose women's program took second at the MAC Outdoor Championships.  “I do like where both our men’s and women’s programs are right now, and the direction they’re heading. I really think there are going to be a lot more championships in the years to come.”

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Here's a look at how Kent State won the 2022 MAC outdoor title