The Panther men’s track team had yet another successful weekend this time in Monmouth where they were able to win Western Illinois’ 12th Annual Lee Calhoun Memorial Invitational.

“Overall, it was a pretty good weekend,” Eastern head coach Tom Akers said. “We were able to win the meet with 144 points.”

WIU finished in the second spot with 115 points while Illinois State rounded out the top three, finishing with 103. Other teams that competed in the invite were Iowa, Bradley, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Truman State, Monmouth College, Knox College, Spoon River College and Parkland College.

The win was especially impressive considering the Panthers left many of their best athletes at home to rest and recuperate from nagging injuries. Junior sprinter Jarrod Macklin was sick and didn’t make the trip. Terrence Roberts, Greg Belger and Jermaine Jones also didn’t compete, staying in Charleston with injuries.

“With the number of top kids that we left behind, it was really nice to win the way we did,” Akers said. “The guys who did compete really did very well.”

Junior thrower John Bourque won the javelin, throwing 187 feet.

“Last year John asked to throw and we said okay and he ended up being maybe eigth or ninth on the all-time list for javelin by the end of the year,” Akers said. “The thing this year is that he has just been so consistent.

“He’s thrown three times over 190 feet and he won the even with 187 off of a grass runway in what was really not ideal conditions,” he said. “That’s a performance we’re a little disappointed with this year, but would have been really pleased with last year. So he’s really progressing and we’re still working with him on a few technical things to get him over that 200 mark.”

Jason Bialka finished second in the 1,500 meter run, his only event of the day.

“Jason looked very sluggish and even in warm ups he looked sluggish,” Akers said. “So he was a little flat coming off of a good, hard week of training.”

Although Akers had not seen the final results as of Sunday, he said he though Quincy Jackson won the long jump with a leap of 238 and 1/2 feet. Ruffner Francis finished second in the high jump at 6 feet 8 inches.

“It was nice to see Ruffner jumpe well,” Akers said. “It’s good to see him back up there where he belongs.”

Eastern didn’t compete in the 4×100 meter relay and entered three teams in the 4×400, placing third.

“We ran three 800 meter runners and (hurdler) Jacob Hunt and they actually ran our best time of the year at 3:18.61,” Akers said. “Jacob had a really good meet and also finished third in the 400 hurdles.”

Akers was also impressed with junior distance runner Eric Gruberman, who right after competing in the 3,000 meter run, ran on a 4×400 meter relay team comprised of distance runners.

“He ran with a team of our distance runners and ran one of our best splits,” Akers said. “And he passed a guy down the last stretch in that race. So, it was a pretty admirable effort by Grubs.”

Now the Panthers will look forward to competing at an invitational at Indiana State, while Akers said he may also send Macklin, Bialka and Bourque to the Kansas Relays to compete.

“We had a real hard week of training last week,” Akers said. “So we’ll back off this week and let the guys get their legs under them as we wind down toward the conference meet.”