The Ashland University Eagles indoor track and field teams split up for the final time as a select few went to Ohio State for the OSU Tune-Up meet on Friday and the rest of the team went to Kent State for the Kent Tune-Up meet on Saturday.

In Columbus, junior Megan Tomei posted a new automatic mark in the women’s shot put while finishing second in the event. She posted a mark of 16.00 meters, improving her throw by 1.09 meters. The throw also put her into the top ten in NCAA Division II all-time.

“It was awesome to be able to finally get that monkey off my back,” said Tomei. “To be able to be one and two with my teammate (senior Jamie Sindelar) in the nation is the best feeling ever.”

Tomei had been going through a bit of a rough patch through most of the season with getting her practice success to translate to competitions.

“I have worked my butt off to where I am now so I went in with a ‘go for it’ mentality,” said Tomei. “In the last round of finals, it was just pure adrenaline. I didn’t realize I had thrown it that far but I got the job done.”

Sophomore Clayton Jury also took second in the men’s shot put with a distance of 19.83 meters, bettering his season best by 1.32 meters. His teammate, junior Zachary Smelcer also improved his throw in the event by improving his provisional mark to 16.33 meters.

In the women’s 4×400 relay, the team of senior Abby Strock, junior Tiarra Kick, senior Lauren Ellsworth, and sophomore Irene Skinner took third place with a time of 3:50.56.

At Kent, two new provisional marks were added to the team’s success in addition to three athletes improving their provisional cuts.

The new marks were set by junior Marlecia Holston in the women’s long jump and freshman Brandon Sicurella in the men’s shot put. Holston also won the women’s long jump while Sicurella took seventh in the shot put.

“It was an awesome feeling,” said Sicurella. “My first five throws just weren’t there but that last one, I knew that it was there.”

Sicurella knew just by seeing where the ball landed that he got the cut. His teammates congratulated him by mobbing him and cheering him on. Hampered by a cold, that did not stop him from getting the job done.

“I credit this to my coach,” said Sicurella. “My teammates got me going and really got me motivated to get that mark.”

Senior Lauren Ellsworth took second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.60, improving her provisional cut in the event. Sophomore

Elijah Talk took third in the men’s shot put while improving his provisional cut as well to a distance of 17.81 meters.

To cap it all off, senior Megan Cunningham also improved her provisional cut in the women’s pole vault while also taking fourth in the event.

For track, senior David Knack took second in the men’s mile run with a time of 4:14:54 and junior Jackie Genetin took third in the women’s 1,000 meter run with a time of 3:01.69.

The next time the Eagles are in action will be at the GLIAC Championships in Tiffin from Feb. 27 and 28.