Edwards earns OVC Male Track Athlete of the Week
January 22, 2015
Junior Calvin Edwards led all Eastern runners last weekend at the Illini Classic where he had a first place finish in the 400-Meter Dash with a time of 48.32 seconds putting him in the top 15 in the country.
With that performance, Edwards earned himself the OVC Male Track Athlete of the Week.
Last season Edwards earned four straight OVC Male Track Athlete of the Week awards and he believes his work ethic and the people around him got him where he is today.
Edwards was the 2014 OVC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year last season and competed in both indoor and outdoor. He runs the 60-meter, 200-meter and the 400-meter.
He also participates in the 4×400 meter relay for indoor track.
He is ranked fourth all time in school history in the 200-meter dash with his time of 21.21 seconds at the Notre Dame Meyo Invite last season.
He is also ranked third all-time at Eastern in the 400-meter dash where he had a time of 47.35 seconds at the Grand Valley Big Meet, also last season.
The junior is also ranked all-time at Eastern in three outdoor track events. He is 10th in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.16 seconds.
He’s fifth in the 400-meter dash and was apart of the 4×100 meter relay team who ranks second all time with a time of 40.08 seconds.
Edwards set himself high goals for this season.
“My goals for this season are to win conference, make it to regionals and make it to nationals,” he said.
He practices technique and does workouts week to week leading up to events.
“Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s are actually work out days and Tuesday and Thursday’s are our technique type of days where we do blocks and work on handoffs and things like that,” he said.
He attended Joliet West High School and competed in four events at the 2012 IHSA 3A state championships.
He was runner up for both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash in the state meet. Edwards also made it to state his junior year of high school and competed in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes placing 8th and 9th.
Edwards played football along with track in high school.
“I had an option between football and to run track,” he said. “I just like the atmosphere around track, pretty much the team aspect compared to football. It’s just different, and I like the people I run with too. I made a good choice with my decision.”
Edwards said his favorite memory from track up to this point in his career is his first year at Eastern.
“My freshman year winning conference and being nominated for the male freshman of the year,” he said.
Edwards possibly plans on coaching after his college career.
Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].
