May 13, 2009

ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Grand Valley State men's and women's track teams are sending 28 student-athletes to the NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championships in San Angelo, Tx. on May 21. The Lakers qualified 21 women and seven men in 28 individual events and two relays.

"We are excited for the opportunity to compete at the NCAA Championships on both sides," said head coach Jerry Baltes. "Coming off the second-place finish at indoors, we are hungry to make the awards stand outdoors after not being in the top four the last two outdoor championships."

From the women's team, the 21 student-athletes who qualified mark the largest number of entrants in GVSU's history. Three second-place finishers from last year's meet (Dianna Noonan, Katherine McCarthy and Candice Wheat) all return with this year's squad.

In the sprint events, Kayla Vallar will represent Grand Valley Staet in the 400-meter with a qualifying time of 56.28 seconds. In middle distance, GVSU will send three runners. Katherine McCarthy's time of 2:10.23 qualified her in the 800-meter, while both Monica Kinney and Susie Rivard will compete in the 1500-meter run. Kinney's time of 4:27.53 puts her fifth among qualifiers, while Rivard is 14th at 4:33.23. Two more runners qualified in distance runs. Megan Maceratini hit marks in both the 5000-meter run (16:57.88) and the 10,000-meter run (36:09.51). Eileen Creutz will join her in the 5000-meter after qualifying with a time o 17:14.47.

Five different Lakers will try to score points in the hurdling events at the championship. Candice Wheat has the fourth-best time in the 100-meter hurdles at 13.64 seconds. Kirsten Nozime and Danielle Fonseca will both compete in the 400-meter hurdles. Nozime qualified with a time of 1:01.45, while Fonseca was right behind her at 1:01.86. Rebecca Winchester leads GVSU into the steeplechase with a qualifying time of 10:48.97. She will be joined by Karie McDonald, who finished with a time of 10:49.97. GVSU will also send two relay teams to the meet. The 400-meter relay team heads into the event with the 12th-best time (47.00) and the 1600-meter relay has the 10th (3:47.56).

In the field events, GVSU is led by returning all-american Dianna Noonan, who had the second-best pole vault in Division II this season at 4.05 meters. She will be joined in the event by Jocelyn Kuksa (3.85), Kellie Kieren (3.85) and Emily McKerchie (3.70). In the high jump, former national champion Maegan Doyen enters with a qualifying height of 1.73 meters, while Heather VanderSlik will also compete starting with her height of 1.71 meters. Newcomer Lauren Buresh was the top Laker in the shot put with a distance of 14.06 meters, while Jessica Rutherford will compete in both the shot put (13.88 meters) and the discus (46.72 meters).

On the men's side, Grand Valley State is led by a former national champion and a top newcomer. Bryant Wilson has won the last two championships in the pole vault, and will be gunning for his fourth consecutive all-american finish. He has the top pole vault heading into the meet with a height of 5.50 meters. Newcomer Aleksas Abromavicius enters the national meet with a distance in the discus of 60.36 meters, nearly four meters ahead of second place.

Five other Lakers will compete at the national championships. Bill Makela's time of 53.03 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles puts him 10th heading in, while both Tyler Emmorey and Chris Hammer qualified in the 3000-meter steeplechase. Emmorey enters the event with a seventh-place time of 9:06.35 with Hammer entering at 10th with a time of 9:09.04. Hammer will be competing for his fourth all-american honor in the steeplechase.

Finally, Nate Miller and Matt Armstrong will compete in the field section of the meet. Miller's height of 2.12 meters in the high jump has him in seventh place, while Armstrong is in 11th place in the shot put with a distance of 16.54 meters.