Junior Ryan McAbee broke the school record in the pole vault at the Big Ten Preview Invitational and sophomore Brent Des Roches had the third best performance of all time at Marquette in the 10,000-meter run at the prestigious 95th running of the Drake Relays, as the Marquette track and field team traveled to two separate meets this weekend.
McAbee reached a height of 14-7 1/4, which broke the school record of 14-6 7/8 that Robert Verbick set in 1961.
"It felt pretty good actually," McAbee said about breaking the record. "We have been working pretty hard for a long time now."
This has been a breakthrough year for Marquette in the pole vault. Both the men's and women's indoor pole-vaulting records were broken this winter. Freshman Zach Pawlowski broke the 46-year-old men's indoor pole vault record and junior Jenny Pribyl broke the indoor pole vault record for the women.
A lot of the improvement in the pole vault program this year has been attributed to a new pole vault pit in the Old Gym, which has allowed the team to practice indoors year round.
"Being able to practice indoors this season has made the transition to the outdoor season a lot easier," McAbee said.
McAbee also noted that the team had just purchased some new poles and was able to use them for the Big Ten Preview meet in West Lafayette, Ind.
"There has been a lot more support from the coaching and the administration to get the stuff that we need," McAbee said.
Des Roches ran the fastest 10,000m race in Conference USA this year by two minutes with a time of 30:15.48 at the highly competitive Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. Even though he broke his previous personal best by over 20 seconds and finished fourth, Des Roches was not totally please with his performance.
"I wasn't disappointed, but I wasn't completely satisfied," Des Roches said. "I just wished the pace was shared more (among the competitors), to keep it more competitive."
NCAA Regional qualifiers Charles Mashozhera, a junior, and sophomore Michaela Courtney stayed the course at the Drake Relays, putting in some of the best performances in C-USA this year. Mashozhera's triple jump of 49-4 1/4 was good for sixth overall and was his personal second best jump in C-USA this season. Courtney took sixth overall in the1,500m with a time of 4:30.65, the third fastest time in C-USA.
Sophomore Jon Shaffer in the men's 400-meter hurdles had a personal best time of 52.63 and gave him eighth place. In the women's 10,000m sophomore Susie Emond (36:43.35) took ninth and senior Susan Barth (36:46.15) took 12th. Their times were the fifth and seventh best times in C-USA this year, respectively.
At the Big Ten Preview Invite, Marquette posted strong performances in the throwing events.
Junior Andy Ballard built on last week's great performance in the shot put and had a personal best in the discus, giving him a second place finish. His throw of 158-05 is tied for the sixth longest throw in C-USA, and was the longest discus throw for Marquette this season.
Freshman Damian Anisko was strong in the hammer and threw a distance of 164-09, good for sixth place and a personal best. Anisko also took seventh in the discus with a throw of 147-10.
Senior Bo Erickson, in the mixed 10,000 meter run, had the men's third best Saturday.
