The men’s and women’s indoor track teams competed at the Grand Valley State Big Meet on Valentine’s Day this past weekend in Allendale, Mich. The teams had high hopes and looked to continue to improve on their already great season.
Marva Goodson opened the meet with a strong 60-meter dash, running a time of 8.10 in the finals. Madeline Steininger and Lisa Ritland competed in the 200-meter dash open and ran great times. Steininger ran a 27.92 and Ritland ran a 29.28. Goodson competed in the 200-meter dash invite, finishing the race in a time of 26.93.
Ritland and Ali Blegen competed in the 400-meter dash open and put up times of 1:03.93 and 1:05.98, respectively. Blegen also competed in the 800-meter dash open and ran a strong race in 2:34.46.
The races got longer in length, but the Vikings’ competitive spirits refused to diminish. Emily Muhs ran the 5,000-meter open in a very good time, completing it in 19:38.42.
The 60-meter hurdles allowed Steininger another opportunity to run, and she came through with a strong time of 10.36. She followed that up with a strong finish in the high jump, as she hit a 1.56-meter jump in the finals.
Goodson continued her strong day in the long jump, placing fifth with a jump of 5.84 meters. Steininger backed her up with a jump of 4.84 meters.
On the men’s side of the meet, Ben Hartman opened with a strong time of 7.32 in the 60-meter dash open, and he improved on his time in the finals, running a 7.28.
In the 400-meter dash, Jesse Peterson, Matt Frelich and Robert Ulloa ran strong times and picked up great finishes, running 54.16, 55.25 and 57.63 respectively. In the 800-meter open, Mark Sprtel ran a 2:08.44 for the men, complemented by strong times from David Zane, Cameron Blegen, Dylan Reed-Maxfield and Dan Moeller. Sprtel ran well again later with a strong one-mile time, finishing in 4:38.36.
To close the strong day for the Vikings, Nick Kerkman made a throw of 12.77 meters in the shot put, then threw 11.50 meters in the weight throw.
The men’s and women’s indoor track teams head to UW-Oshkosh this weekend to participate in the invitational as they continue to prepare for the conference championships at the end of February.
Indoor Track update
