Results (PDF)

MUNCIE, Ind. -- Joe Stewart blew away his personal best on the track by over a minute to win the 10,000m and give the Miami men's track and field team a lead after day one of the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championships on Thursday.

The RedHawks are tied with Akron for the lead the men's competition with 24 points with two events going final on the first day of the three-day competition. Eastern Michigan sits third with 16 points, followed by Central Michigan's seven, Buffalo's four and Kent State's three.

Stewart upset top-seeded Willy Fink of Eastern Michigan with a time of 29:38.30, topping his previous PR of 30:52.84 at the Raleigh Relays. He crossed the finish line over 30 seconds quicker than the next closest competitor to pull away with his first individual MAC title. At the moment, Stewart's time ranks in the top 30 of the region. Last year's 10,000m runner up, Dave Wing, also contributed six points to Miami's day one total by clocking a third-place time of 30:28.34.

"That was an impressive race that Joe ran," Miami head coach Warren Mandrell said. "He did that by himself, he kicked it up a gear in the last three miles. That's the fastest times I've seen one of our runners run at a MAC meet. Both Joe and Dave ran intelligently the whole race. There was no wasted energy out of either of them. We told Joe if he felt good to go after the 5K and he did just that to take control of the race."

The 10,000m was one of two scored events on the first day of this three-day conference meet. Also going final on Thursday was the javelin, which saw Tyler Yee earn Second-Team All-MAC honors after he unloaded a season-best throw of 208-1, finishing second to Akron's Bryce Lemon.

"Tyler competed well today," Mandrell said. "He posted his best mark at a MAC meet and put himself in contention for qualifying for the NCAA first round."

Thursday also saw half of the decathlon's events put in the books. Zane Shreve sits sixth in the competition with 2,297 points.

The meet resumes on Friday with the men's hammer throw at 10 a.m.