Feb. 10, 2008

Boston, Mass. - Grand Valley State University had it's men's and women's track teams competing at three separate events this weekend. While the majority of the teams were at the St. Valentine's Invitational in Boston, Mass., other student-athletes were at the Roo Town Open in Akron, or competing at Saginaw Valley State in University Center, Mich. Candice Wheat broke the GVSU record in the 55-meter hurdles and automatically qualified for the NCAA meet in the event. Nate Peck also automatically qualified, as well as Todd Schuster and Katherine McCarthy.

On the men's side of the action, the Lakers had a slew of athletes qualify for the NCAA meet later this year. The team performed especially well in the 5000-meter race, with six different athletes qualifying. Nate Peck came in second in the event, and automatically qualified for NCAAs with a time of 14:07.39. Ryan Holm and Grant Fall came in fourth and sixth, respectively, and both provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet. Holm finished with a time of 14:24.84 and Fall crossed the finish line at 14:28.97. Nick Polk, Robbie Young and Ross Faasse rounded out the qualifiers for GVSU in the 5k. Polk finished 10th with a time of 14:34.02, Young came in 21st at 14:44.89 and Faasse was 29th at 14:48.57. Two other men qualified in separate events. Todd Schuster automatically qualified in the 800-meter, taking sixth place with a time of 1:51.71. Finally, Troy Rock qualified in both the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes. In the 200, Rock placed 10th at 22.09 seconds, and then did one better in the 400, taking ninth with a time of 48.41 seconds.

The women's track team also performed well over the weekend. The distance medley marathon team of Katherine McCarthy, Katie Mandziara, Katie Alfredson and Kelly Gibbons took third place and provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet with a time of 11:54.23. Individually, Candice Wheat automatically qualified in the 55-meter hurdles with a second-place time of eight seconds flat. That time was also a Grand Valley State University record, topping Jenn O'Shesky's previous record of 8.04 seconds. McCarthy also automatically qualified individually, placing ninth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:13.12. Two student-athletes also provisionally qualified individually to go along with Wheat and McCarthy's automatic qualifying marks. Alfredson placed 24th in the 800-meter with a time of 2:16.39 and Megan Maceratini took 14th in the 5k with a time of 17:30.43.

In the Roo Town Open at the University of Akron, Dianna Noonan qualified in the pole vault and took fifth place by clearing a height of 12'1.50". Other GVSU student-athletes also competed at Saginaw Valley State University, with the results provided at the link below.

SVSU Results