RESULTS

On Friday, the Grand Valley State track and field teams hosted the Mike Lints Alumni Open. It was the first meet of the year for the GVSU men and women — and the first win of the year for both teams.

The Laker women scored 126.6 points, easily outdistancing Michigan State (105.6) and Indiana Tech (69.1). The GVSU men, meanwhile, scored 108 points to edge Indiana Tech (101) and MSU (94).

“The overall team performance was alright, we had lots of good things that took place on Friday at the meet with some of our individual performances,” said GVSU coach Jerry Baltes. “We also have some things that we need to improve on and we need to get better across the board, but that was expected since it was our very first meet of the season.

“If we stay focused on the everyday process, the No. 3 ranking will speak for itself.”

Ten GVSU women earned qualifying marks and three had individual or team victories. Seven Lakers finished in the top 10 in the mile, and three of them finished in the top five. GVSU’s Amy Cymerman won the event with a time of 4:54.93.

“Amy had a really good start to the season on Friday,” Baltes said. “She is ahead of the curve because she did have a cross country season so she was able to start her season early and begin training sooner than some of the other girls. This is a really positive start to the season for her.”

The women’s 4×400 meter relay team (Breanna Luba, Alexis Duncan, Brittany Terry and Angela Ritter) came away with a win, crossing first with a time of 3:54.81. Duncan, a freshman, added an individual victory in the women’s long jump with a 5.55-meter leap in the finals.

The men’s team had a very successful day on the track, as well. Darien Thornton (20.05m) notched a victory in the weight throw, and Sean Wells took first in the 60 meter hurdles (8.02).

In the mile run, four Lakers finished in the top 10. Wuoi Mach took second place with a time of 4:12.11 in front of teammate Ricky Perez, who was right on Mach’s heels in third place with a time of 4:12.26.

“Since the meet was canceled last week, we had to work off a little rust early but it was a good effort by the whole team. We have been putting in a lot of work to improve,” said senior Brent Brock.

GVSU will be back in action next Friday and Saturday at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Ind.