For the sixth straight year, Grand Valley State left the GLIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships with both trophies.

A big performance on day two propelled GVSU to another sweep at the conference meet, which was held at Saginaw Valley State from Feb. 28 to March 1. It was the 16th straight championship for the GVSU women and the sixth straight for the men.

The No. 4 GVSU women finished with 156.5 points in the two-day event, easily outpacing second-place Ashland (107 points) and third-place Hillsdale (86 points). The No. 3 Laker men trailed Findlay by two points after day one, but ran away with the victory after racking up 155 total points. Findlay (99) and Tiffin (97) rounded out the top three.

GVSU head coach Jerry Baltes was tabbed as the GLIAC Women’s Coach of the Year for the 15th time after the meet. Baltes said the team’s balance and overall depth led to the pair of victories.

“This award means that we have great coaches and athletes, and it’s great recognition for the program,” he said.

The women were firing on all cylinders on day one, and they were once again led by the pole-vault crew. Alexandra Kitz won the event with her vault of 3.81 meters, Jamie Roberts came in second and Jennifer Schornak took third to secure a 1-2-3 finish for the Lakers.

Freshman Alexis Duncan added to the strong start with a victory in the long jump. Duncan’s 5.84-meter performance not only qualified her for the NCAA Championships, but also was 14.5 centimeters ahead of the second-place finisher.

She was named GLIAC Freshman of the Meet in field events.

Meanwhile, the Laker men were lead by the distance medley relay team of Ethan Barnes, T.J. Burnett, Joel Rietsema and Wuoi Mach on day one. The group’s first-place time of 9:51.05 set a school record, and broke the GLIAC record by more than two seconds. Trent Chappell came up big as well, taking first in the high jump with a mark of 2.09 meters.

The Laker women continued to show their dominance on day two. The team had 12 top-five finishes, including three victories. Breanna Luba set a SVSU field house record with her first-place performance in the 60 meter hurdles (8.62), Michaela Lewis won the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.64 and Amy Cymerman came away with a victory in the 3000 meter run (9:38.91).

“A key to this victory was we stayed hungry as a team and didn’t get complacent,” said Natalie Nelson, who was a part of two second-place finishes for GVSU. “We were grateful to even have this opportunity, and many of the runners stepped up and were ready to compete.”

On the men’s side, Bryce Bradley fueled GVSU’s comeback on day two when he flew by the competition in the 3000 meter dash. Bradley won the race in just 8:11.46 – fast enough for a school, facility and conference record that had stood for 32 years.

“This means a lot to me, setting this record,” Bradley said. “It is a pretty big deal. I have set records before in high school, but no record has been as big as this one.”

Bradley will be one of 24 Lakers competing at the 2015 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships from March 13-14 in Birmingham, Ala.