INDIANAPOLIS – With more auto qualifying marks met, Tiffin swept Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Indoor Track & Field Athletes of the Week that were announced on Wednesday afternoon.
The Dragons are getting ready to host the Great Midwest Indoor Championships starting on Friday. Tiffin’s men’s and women’s programs, both nationally ranked for the entire 2019-20 indoor season, are defending conference team champions.
Men’s Track Athlete of the Week
Jonte Baker
Tiffin
Sprints
Senior
Cleveland, OH (John Adams HS)
Baker chalked up another automatic qualifying time in his signature event, the 60-meter dash, to head into the conference meet on a high note.
Baker is the defending national champion in the 60m and remains the top overall seed in Division II this season with eight total student-athletes running 6.72 or faster.
Baker was the fastest in his preliminary and finals heat at the Silverston Invitational up at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He clocked a 6.76 in the prelims before bettering his time with a 6.70 in the finals to win the event.
One week after tying his overall conference record at the USATF Indoor Nationals, Baker put two more times in the top 10 of the conference record books at fifth and eighth, respectively.
Baker will look to beat his conference championship record time of 6.77 that he ran last year.
Men’s Field Athlete of the Week
Nikolas Curtiss
Tiffin
Throws
Junior
Lancaster, OH (Lancaster HS)
Like Baker, Curtiss is ramping up for the conference indoor championships as the top seed in Division II in the shot put among a total of five auto qualifiers.
Two of those auto qualifiers are from the Dragons, including Jabari Bennett, and senior Eric Jackson isn’t far behind in seventh while freshman Isaiah Allen is lurking in 12th among provisional qualifiers.
Curtiss put forth another AQ effort in the shot put at the Silverston Invitational with a distance of 19.15m (62’ 10”).
There was no surprise as he won the event and four of the top five finishers were the Dragons’ throws crew.