EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's and women's track & field teams headed to Michigan State University on Friday, March 31 for the Spartan Invitational. The Cardinals looked to add to their already strong start to open the 2023 outdoor season.
Sophomore, Alexa Keiser continued her distance running dominance on Friday afternoon winning her first 3000-meter steeplechase of the season. Keiser finished the race in 11:04.20 dusting second place by over eight seconds. The women's team continued its storied distance running with a third-place finish from Lynsey Amthor in the 5000m run with a time of 18:01.40.
Field events were dominated by the Spartans from Michigan State, but SVSU hung tough getting a third place from Freshman Andrew Quinn in the shot put tossing 15.28m besting multiple division one athletes. In addition, Graham Jones opened his 2023 javelin campaign with a heave of 42.82 meters good enough for a fourth-place finish. Freshman, Autumn Morris placed fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 10.84 meters, and senior, MacKenzie Ramey added to her final outdoor season placing 10th in the hammer throw and sixth place in the shot put with a throw of 11.8 meters just behind fifth place.
Track events were highlighted by an impressive second-place finish of the men's 4x100 team consisting of Nathan Furst, Quinn Broussard, Rodney Zimmerman, and Kabanu Witherspoon who finished in 42.10 seconds. Furst added to his night in the 110 hurdles with a fourth-place finish in 14.54 seconds. Freshman, Ryan Brenner placed sixth overall in the 400m running a time of 50.76, while teammate Seth Oxer took second place in the 400m hurdles in a blazing 54.88. Lauren Buckner took first place in the 1500m unseeded race winning by nearly 200 meters in a solid 4:34.54 performance. Makayla Fuerst added to her impressive outdoor campaign so far this season with a fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles in 1:05.93 just half a second behind third place. Sophia Thelen capped off the meet for SVSU by finishing fifth overall in the 200-meter dash in 26.21 seconds.
Meet Results can be found here
UP NEXT
The track and field squads head to Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan on Friday, April 7 and 8 to build on one last meet before traveling to Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California the following week.