Results

SAGINAW, Mich. - After the first day of the 2015 GLIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships, the Grand Valley State women are holding a steady 14.5 lead over second-place Ashland while the men trail Findlay by just two points for the lead at the Saginaw Valley State University Fieldhouse.

The Laker men's distance medley relay team set a school and GLIAC record in their victory. The relay team of Ethan Barnes, TJ Burnett, Joel Rietsema, and Wuoi Mach ran the event in a time of 9:51.05, smashing the previous record of 9:54.59 set at last year's GLIAC Championship set by Ashland, and besting the school record of 9:51.17 originally set in 2013.

The event that saw the most Lakers on the podium was in the women's pole vault. Alexandra Kitz, named the USTFCCCA Division II Women's Athlete of the Week this past Tuesday, took first place with a vault of 3.81 meters, and she was followed by Jamie Roberts (3.81 meters) in second, and Jennifer Schornak (3.71 meters) in third. Kitz was awarded first place due to making less misses than Roberts at the 3.71 meter bar height.

Several other GVSU athletes took first on the day. Alexis Duncan won the long jump with an NCAA qualifying mark of 5.84 meters, 14.5 centimeters better than the second-place finisher from Tiffin, while Trent Chappell placed first in the Heptathlon men's high jump with a mark of 2.09 meters to earn him 887 points in the event.

The Lakers also had their fair share of scorers. For the men, Chris May (14:33.95), Nate Orndorf (14:36.10) and Brady Selner (14:41.17) placed third, fourth, and ninth respectively in the 5000 meter run, and Darien Thornton came in third in the weight throw with a mark of 21.11 meters. On the women's side, Sarah Talbott placed fifth in the long jump with a mark of 5.48 meters, Laura Schroeder took fourth in the weight throw with a mark of 19.08 meters, and Jenna Klynstra placed eighth in the 5000 meters with a time of 17:44.21.

The remainder of the first day's events were preliminary qualifiers to determine tomorrow's finals. Those who qualified for Sunday's finals are as follows:

Women's 60 meter hurdles
1. Breanna Luba - 8.71 (prov.) (SVSU Fieldhouse record)
8. McKenna Mattson - 8.91

Women's 60 meter dash
1. Angela Ritter - 7.64 (prov.)
3. Michaela Lewis - 7.66 (prov.)
4. Carly Scott - 7.68 (prov.)

Women's 200 meter dash
2. Angela Ritter - 24.90 (prov.)
7. Carly Scott - 25.43

Men's 60 meter hurdles
1. Sean Wells - 7.79 (prov.) (GLIAC record)
5. Gary Hickman - 8.33

Men's 60 meter dash
7. Luke Vasilion - 6.99

Men's 200 meter dash
3. Sean Wells - 21.86

Men's 400 meter dash
5. TJ Burnett - 48.70 (prov.)
8. Daniel Pung- 49.15

The final day of competition begins at 9 a.m. with the completion of the Heptathlon, while the field events begin at 10:30 a.m., and the women's Mile kicks off the running events at 12:15 p.m.