Buchanon, St. Amant Win for U-M at Season-Opening EMU Invite

Buchanon, St. Amant Win for U-M at Season-Opening EMU Invite

Jan. 9, 2010
Site: Ypsilanti, Mich. (Bob Parks Track/Bowen Fieldhouse)
Event: Eastern Michigan Invitational
U-M Team Finish: No team scoring
Next U-M Event: Saturday, Jan. 16 -- vs. Ohio State (U-M Indoor Track Building), Noon

YPSILANTI, Mich. -- In the first competition of the year, the University of Michigan men's track and field team made the short trip across Washtenaw County to participate in the non-scored Eastern Michigan Invitational on Saturday (Jan. 9) at the Bob Parks Track/Bowen Fieldhouse. Junior Carl Buchanon (South Bend, Ind./Clay) won the 60-meter hurdles, while junior David St. Amant (Livonia, Mich./Churchill) took first in the 400-meter dash.

Michigan got two top-five finishes in the 200-meter dash. Freshman Aaron Taylor (Rochester Hills, Mich./Adams) tasted his first collegiate action and crossed the line in second (22.35), while sophomore Matthew Campbell (Rochester, Mich./Rochester) came in fifth (22.83).

In addition to St. Amant's win in the 400-meter dash, several others received high times. Sophomore Nicholas Neumann (Mokena, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) missed much of last season due to injury but finished third in his first action back, getting clocked in with a time of 50.82. Junior Matt Wheeler (Atherton, Calif./Menlo-Atherton) and redshirt freshman James Wade (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) finished fifth and seventh, respectively.
In the 3,000-meter run, senior Peter Christmas (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) took second, while redshirt freshman Bobby Aprill (Dexter, Mich./Dexter), running unattached, finished in fourth.

Over in the field, fifth-year senior John Kipf (Monroe, Mich./St. Mary Catholic Central) finished in a tie for second place on high jump (6-8 1/4). Junior Robert Peddlar (Kingston, Jamaica/Wolmer's Boys) was U-M's top performer in long jump with a third-place finish (22-8 1/2). And a pair of freshmen were Michigan's top performers on pole vault, as John Greenlee (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) finished in sixth (unattached), with Austin DeWildt (Wyoming, Mich./Catholic Central) right behind in seventh.

Michigan opens the home slate next weekend with arch-rival Ohio State at noon on Saturday (Jan. 16) at the Indoor Track Building for another edition of "The Dual". The Big Ten Network will be on hand to broadcast the meet, which will be televised Jan. 23 at 3 p.m.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N O T E S

• Michigan did not have any competitors in the mile, but import Brendon Blacklaws (Wellington, New Zealand/Wellington College) finished third in the 800-meter run. Senior Jeff Merrill (Lodi, Calif./Lodi) came in sixth.
• Junior Nick McCampbell (Detroit, Mich./Cass Technical) finished only nine-hundredths of a second behind Buchanon in the 60-meter hurdles (third place).

• Michigan did not have any throwers (shotput, weight throw) entered in competition.

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Fred LaPlante
On Saturday's meet ... "Well, it was our first meet. Some of our guys were competing for the first time and some of our established guys want to see where they are for the upcoming weeks. I thought we competed at a pretty high level, we were engaged. We performed just about how I thought we would -- we weren't horrible, but we weren't great, either. It's only the first meet. We will improve."

Courtesy Michigan