Eastern’s track team came out of winter hibernation with the opening of the “Big Blue Classic” track meet ,Thursday, which marks the Panthers only home meet of the outdoor season.

The classic will run through Sunday.

Eastern sophomore Josh Wakey was the only host competitor involved in the first day of events. The classic opened with events from the women’s heptathlon and the men’s decathlon.

Wakey finished in the middle of the pack, fourth overall, in all of the five events (100 meter dash, long jump, high jump, shot put and 400 meter dash) taking place Thursday.

“I was very pleasantly surprised by his performance,” Eastern coach Tom Akers said. “This is his first decathlon he has ever competed in. With some practice, he did a real nice job in the long jump, a good job in the high jump and some of his strong events will be tomorrow.”

Akers said Wakey primarily competes in the high hurdles and pole volt, but wanted to give decathlon a try.

Eastern does not typically compete in the decathlon because it is not included in the Ohio Valley Conference Championships.

Wakey placed seventh of nine competitors in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.57 seconds and fifth in the long jump with a distance of 20 feet 10 1/4 inches.

Wakey finished tied for fourth in the High jump at 6′ 1/2,” but was able to crack the top three in the shot put by finishing third with a 39′ 8″ throw.

The Herscher native finished the event with a sixth-place finish in the 400 meter dash with a time of 53.36 seconds.

Eastern assistant coach Grant Dennis is also taking part in the decathlon as an independent competitor.

Dennis competed in the decathlon for Eastern and in 2001 finished 13th in the NCAA National Championships.

Dennis took first in three events, the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.02 seconds, 400 meter dash at 51.08 seconds and in the shot put with a 47′ 10 3/4″ throw.

In the other two events, Dennis finished fourth and third in the long jump and high jump respectively.

One of the participants that shined in the event was Indiana’s Jake Wiseman. The Hoosier won the long jump (22′ 7″) and was the only competitor to finish fourth or higher in all six events.

After the first day of the decathlon, Dennis led with 3,730 points followed by Wiseman at 3,655. Wakey is in fourth place with 3,325 points behind Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville’s Phil Freimuth, who has 3,414 points.

Dennis’ finish will not be calculated in the team points, so if he claims first place, the runner up will receive first-place points for his team.

In the women’s heptathlon, Western Illinois University’s Kari Diem dominated the competition as the Lumberjacks junior won two events, the 100 meter dash and the shot put, and had a second place finish in the 200 meter dash.

Diem has 2,785 points and holds a 240-point lead over second place, teammate Valarie Haacke. Illinois State University’s Tori Gaumer is in third with 2,506 points. Eastern has none competing in the heptathlon.

The classic will have more Panthers competing in the next two days of the meet when several individual events take place on this weekend.