The composers of “America the Beautiful” were most likely not thinking of the Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s track and field teams, especially when writing “from sea to shining sea,” but with trips to Stanford University, Michigan State University and Duke University, that is exactly how it felt on Friday and Saturday for both squads.

On Friday, the distance team sent three runners to Stanford, Calif., to race against a Division-I field in the 5,000-meter run at the Stanford Invitational.

Senior distance runner Anthony Witt finished 13th in section three with a provisional time of 14 minutes, 11.20 seconds. For the women, graduate student Rachel Patterson finished 13th in section one at 15:54.35, while fellow grad student Betsy Graney crossed the finish line in 15:56.68, good for first place in section two.

“Between the competition and the weather, it was a perfect scenario to run fast,” said GVSU men’s and women’s assistant coach Nick Polk, who traveled to Stanford with the distance group. “It is one of the top three meets in the whole country. They ran very good times and to be able to do that this early in the season is a really big deal.”

On Saturday, the vaulting crew traveled to Michigan State University to compete in the Spartan Invitational. Also, the throwers,
sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers traveled to Durham, N.C., to compete in the Duke Invitational.

At the unscored meet in East Lansing, Mich., sophomore Kristen Hixson led the Laker women, vaulting to a height of 13 feet. For the GV men, junior Raphael Gelo led the way as he cleared 16 feet.

“The warmer the weather, the better it is for pole vaulting,” Hixson said. “We had a wide arrange of competition. It is always good to go against Division I schools. Going to big meets like this early on will prepare us for conference
and nationals so we will be ready for those challenges.”

Down in Durham, N.C., the Lakers were led by second-place finishes by the 4 × 100-meter and 4 × 400-meter relay teams on both the men’s and women’s side.

The men’s 4 × 100 team of senior Xavier Parnell, freshmen Brent VanEnk and Jesse Schwartz and sophomore Nathaniel Hammersmith finished in 41.79, while the 4 × 400 team of Hammersmith, freshman Daniel Pung and sophomores Mohamed Mohamed and Logan Hoffman
finished in 3:18.27.

Parnell also collected two individual fourth-place finishes in the 200-meter dash (21.77 seconds) and the 100-meter dash (10.81 seconds). Also, redshirt freshman Trent Chappell tied for third in the high jump, clearing 2.15 meters, while junior Andrew Gorley finished second in the hammer throw with a toss of 58.07 meters.

The women’s 4 × 100 team of freshmen Carly Scott, Michaela Lewis and Brittney Banister and sophomore Brittney Jackson finished in 47.23, while the 4 × 400 team of seniors Chanelle Caldwell and Adrienne Chandler and sophomores Aileen Lemanski and Leiah Hess finished in 3:48.36.

Two individuals found their way to the top as sophomore Kalena Franklin finished first in 100-meter hurdles in 14.30 and junior Liz Murphy won the hammer throw with a toss of 56.32 meters.

“There was a lot of really good competition,” Murphy said. “We have never been to such a huge university like Duke before.
It is definitely different not having our entire team together, but we were still very supportive of one another.”

Next Saturday, the teams pack their bags again, this time heading to Hillsdale University for the Hillsdale Invitational.

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