Dodgeball team heads to Vegas

The Grand Valley State University club dodgeball team won its second consecutive Ultimate Dodgeball Championship qualifier in Kentwood on June 29. With the win, the team earned an invite to play in the regional Sky Zone tournament in Las Vegas from August 8-10.

GVSU hasn’t missed a beat since winning the 2014 National Collegiate Dodgeball Association title in April. The Lakers romped through pool play with a 7-2 record before going undefeated in bracket play to take the qualifier for the second consecutive year.

The team finished third in the Las Vegas tournament a year ago.

102 Lakers earn academic awards

Grand Valley State University had 102 student-athletes from seven different sports named to the GLIAC 2014 Spring Sports All-Academic and Academic Excellence Teams.

All-Academic Team honors are given to student-athletes that meet criteria and hold a GPA between 3.00-3.49, while Academic Excellence Team awards are given to those with a GPA of 3.50-4.00.

Seven GVSU baseball players earned All-Academic awards while three more took home Academic Excellence awards. The softball team had seven award winners – four All-Academic and three Academic Excellence honorees.

The men’s track and field team chipped in with 33 award winners, while the women’s team had 32 overall. Also adding to GVSU’s total was the women’s lacrosse team (11), men’s tennis team (five) and women’s golf team (four).

3 Lakers compete in USATF meet

Three athletes affiliated with the Grand Valley State University track and field program participated at the 2014 USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships last weekend in Sacramento, Calif.

Junior Darien Thornton joined a pair of GVSU alumni, Kristen Hixson and Sam Lockhart, to compete against the world-class competition in the event. Thornton impressed in the hammer throw, tossing throws of 65.46 meters, 64.82 meters and 66.24 meters to finish in 13th place. The three-throw series was the best of his career.

Despite fouling on her first two throws, Lockhart managed a 14th-place finish in women’s discus with a throw of 51.34 meters, while Hixson, who notched the eighth-best women’s outdoor pole vault mark in the world earlier this year at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Allendale, was unable to clear a height of 4.30 meters.

GVSU basketball inks 2 recruits

The Grand Valley State University men’s basketball team bolstered its 2014-2015 recruiting class with the addition of two guards for the upcoming season.

On June 19, GVSU head coach Ric Wesley announced the signing of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Sam McClendon and Ottawa Hills’ Myles Miller, a McDonald’s All-American nominee.

McClendon most recently played for Score Academy, a prep school in North Carolina, where he averaged 18.3 points, 5.8 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game last season.

The pair of recruits will join GVSU next season along with Comstock Park forward Drake Baar and Grand Rapids Union guard Rashaud Orange.