Closs Hopes To Keep Her Winning Streak This Spring

Photo Credit/ Me'saj Closs Junior track and field star Me'saj Closs practices her shot-put throw, continuing a dominant PSAC season.

Billy Trice

Contributing Writer

Me’saj Closs, a member of the ESU women’s Track and Field team and is one of our schools’ shining stars. Closs is in her third year as a Business Management major and is a leader of the women’s part of the track program at ESU. 

She is ranked at least top ten in all of her throwing events: Shot Put, Weight Throw, Hammer Throw, and Discus for both indoor and outdoor seasons. Her dominance in the circle has led to much success for Closs as she qualified for the PSAC Championships all of her three years here at ESU.

In fact, Closs was on the medal stand this past weekend at the championship meet while tossing a personal best of 52 feet in the weight throw; which landed her fourth place overall and ranked second all-time at ESU.

Closs comes from an athletic family, with her mom and dad both being collegiate athletes at the University of Connecticut were they eventually met. Her mother was a track star at UConn but choose to not pursue her athletic career any further to take care of her future daughter, while her father was an offensive lineman for UConn and eventually went on to play a few years in the NFL for the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent.

While Closs was growing up she tried a plethora of sports including soccer, basketball, and many others yet none of them seem to intrigue her. The only activity that could fill her passion for the majority of her life was dancing.  

That being said, Closs took a three-year break from competing in any sport and solely focused on dance. Then, she stumbled upon the game of Track and Field and fell head over heels over it. You would think that her mother would have pushed her in the direction of track and field as a youth, but that was not the case.

Closs said to me that her mother never wanted her to feel pressured to compete in track and so she never really pushed her in any direction and felt it was best she find the sport on her own. Good thing she found it because it landed her a scholarship to throw at the collegiate level, while also claiming all of the accolades she has worked so diligently to achieve.

Even though Closs is in the record books and has earned many tangible accolades, she still remains very humble about all of her success and it has not gone unnoticed. Thrower and teammate, Dominic Walton, enlighten me on how he and the other throwers view Closs.

“She is very motivational….she will always remind you what you want, what you wanted to do, why you started this sport, and why you are here to accomplish your goals,” he said. 

Clearly, Closs’s motivational tactics worked for Walton since this past weekend he placed third in the shot put with a mark of 53’ 6 ½”. That mark consequently, lead to the men’s team finishing in second place just behind Shippensburg University.

Walton also told me that Closs is a model teammate who stands up for her younger teammates while pushing and inspiring them to achieve the same heights that she has climbed. Clearly, Closs is not only a fan favorite but a leader amongst her peers as well.

Be on the lookout for Me’saj Closs and Dominic Walton during this year’s outdoor campaign.

Email Billy at: 

btrice@live.esu.edu