Track and field teams bring home multiple first place wins

During the weekend, the men’s and women’s track and field teams split up to send competitors to three meets, coming away with several first place finishers and qualifying provisionals.

At the Pacesetter Sports Invitational in Terre Haute, IN, junior Jackson Blanchard won the men’s 110m and 400m hurdles with a season best 14.54 in the 110m and 51.29 in the 400m. This puts Blanchard in third place nationally for DII in the 400m hurdles.

Freshman teammate Brandon Miller took first in the 200m with another season best of 21.23, followed up by freshman Brook Barkocky’s first place finish in the 400m hurdles with a personal best of 1:02.98, just one second away from qualifying.

Sophomore Jenna Doyle won the women’s high jump with a height of 1.65m to finish out the Pacesetter Invite for GVSU.

At the Golden Grizzlies Invite in Rochester, MI, senior Carley Livingston and junior James Nutt both brought home first place wins in the pole vault, with Livingston’s coming in at 3.81m and Nutt’s at 4.53m.

Three Lakers have come out of the Flames Invitational with qualifying marks from Cleveland, TN including sophomore Emma Everhart-Deckard and senior Michelle Koetjein the women’s 10,000m and sophomore Sam Martens for the men’s 10,000m.

GV Baseball travels to Northwood, splits doubleheader

The no. 20 ranked Grand Valley State University baseball team continued their four-game series against the Northwood University Timberwolves on April 9-10.

Day one’s doubleheader was split, starting with the Timberwolves’ 2-1 win in game one which the Lakers responded to with a 4-1 win in game two.

The Timberwolves started strong in game one, leading 2-0 from back to back RBI doubles, leaving the Lakers with only one run from senior Christian Faust’s RBI allowing sophomore Kyle Nott to score. Sophomore pitcher Austin Brown threw six innings, allowing two hits off four runs, striking out five batters.

In game two, the Lakers came back fast with three runs in the first inning. Northwood’s only run was made in the fifth inning to complete the game. Sophomore pitcher Nick Rutkowski went eight innings, allowing one run and striking out five.

On April 10, the Lakers lost a closer game 4-3 against the Timberwolves as redshirt freshman pitcher Colby Phipps threw four innings allowing four runs off four hits which was relieved by sophomore pitcher Logan Wynalda’s two scoreless innings.

Coming back successfully in game two, the Lakers started up scoring in the second inning with seven runs over the course of five innings before Northwood got on the board at the bottom of the fifth. The Lakers ended the game 10-4, advancing their overall record to 19-9 on the season.

The Lakers will host Purdue-Northwest University on April 12 to continue GLIAC play.