FREELAND, MICH. -- Four members of the Trine University men's outdoor track and field team have earned All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association honors for their individual performances at the MIAA Outdoor Championship Meet.
Seniors Nick Zak (Saint John, Ind./Hanover Central), Jacob Payne (LaPorte, Ind./LaPorte), Jeffery Barnett (Fremont, Ohio/Ross) and Nicholas Gerber (Goshen, Ind./Goshen) all earned All-Conference after capturing individual event titles at last week's MIAA meet.
Zak was the lone individual to post a winning time in the running events for the Thunder and captured the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:00.79, his first MIAA title in the event.
The remaining victories all came in the field events, that included Payne who became the third straight Trine athlete to win the pole vault event with a mark of 14' 11.00".
Barnett became a three-time outdoor event champion in the long jump (2017-19) after a best effort of 24' 0.25". His mark was a MIAA Outdoor Championship record and surpassed Josh Meckes of Calvin who had a leap of 23' 9.50" back in 2006. Not only was his mark a conference record, but also a Trine record which Barnett currently owned at 23' 10.00" which he set in May of 2017.
Gerber repeated as the MIAA Outdoor Champion in the hammer throw with a winning mark of 183' 6.00".
Trine is scheduled to compete in the two-day Dr. Keeler Invitational on Thursday-Friday, May 9-10 hosted by North Central College in Naperville, Ill. The first events on Thursday are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.