ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State
University men’s and women’s track and field teams
competed Friday (Jan. 8) in the Grand Valley State University Early
Bird Invitational.
Both teams competed very well having 20 combined athletes finish
in the top three on the day. On the women’s side, sophomore
Ashley
Meyer (Shepherd, Mich./Shepherd HS) would earn a first place
finish in the 800-meter run timing in at 2:25 as well as finishing
third in the mile with a time of 5:24. Freshman Sara Jones
(Ortonville, Mich./Brandon HS) also earned a first place finish in
the high jump with a leap of 4’ 11.75”. Senior transfer
Katie
Scott (Mitchell, Ont./Mitchell District HS) earned two second
place finishes, one in the mile with a time of 5:23 and the other
in the 3,000 with a time of 10:45. Also earning a second place
finish was freshman Erica Marsh
(Litchfield, Mich./Litchfield HS) throwing the weight a distance of
42’ 11.75”. Sophomore transfer Elizabeth
Willford (Gladwin, Mich./Gladwin HS) would earn a third place
finish in the pole vault with a height of 10’ 11.75”.
Finishing out the meet was the 4x400-meter relay team that finished
third crossing the line at 4:21, and consisted of freshman Alanah
Pietryga, sophomores Elizabeth Willford and Ashley Meyer, and
junior Alycia
Wright (Macomb, Mich./Lutheran North HS).
On the men’s side, freshman Tyler Grob
(Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney HS) kicked the meet by earning a first
place finish in the heptathlon scoring a total of 4412 points. Grob
would later tie for first in the pole vault with a height of
13’ 1.5”. Junior Scott
Chevalier (Ann Arbor, Mich./Dexter HS) earned a first place
finish in the 60-meter dash timing in at 6.92 as well as placing
third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.47. Middle distance
runner Tony Filipek
(Caro, Mich./Kingston HS) earned a provisional qualifying time of
1:52.49 in the 800-meter run placing him first overall. Senior Steve
Genther (Laingsburg, Mich./Laingsburg HS) placed first in the
3,000-meter run timing in at 8:49, and also earned a third place
finish in the mile, crossing the line with a final time of 4:18.
The 4x400-meter relay team consisting of freshman Tony Rasch
(Perry, Mich./Perry HS) and seniors Ben Richards
(Goodrich, Mich./Goodrich HS), Tony Filipek, and Charlie
Richards (Goodrich, Mich./Goodrich HS) earned first place with
a time of 3:25. Charlie Richards would also place second in the
800-meter run timing in at 1:54. Senior Derek Stone
(Metamora, Mich./Lapeer East HS) placed second in the mile with a
final time of 4:17. In the weight throw, sophomore Brian Bott
(Buckley, Mich./Kingsley HS) placed second with a toss of 48’
11”. Earning a third place finish in the shot-put was
freshman Kane Dietzel
(Twining, Mich./Whittemore-Prescott HS) with a toss of 45’
11.75”.
The men’s and women’s track and field teams will be back in action again at 3:00pm Friday, January 15 when they host the SVSU “Doug Hansen” Open.