The Grand Valley State indoor track and field team went on the road to compete in two spearate meets the weekend, the Hillsdale College Crossover and the Gladstein Invitational. The Lakers traveled to Hillsdale, Michigan, Friday Jan, 24 and also went to Bloomingdale, Indiana, for a two-day meet meet Friday, Jan. 24.

Although GVSU did a lot of traveling this weekend, the Lakers’ head coach Jerry Baltes was happy with the idea of seeing competition outside of their track in Allendale.

“It was great to hit the road and get some competition in outside of the Kelly,” Baltes said.

During the Hillsdale Crossover, the women’s team dominated the field events. The Lakers took second and third in the high jump with Alessia Olhava (1.58 meters) and Jenna Doyle (1.58 meters), respectively. They continued on in the pole fault and took first through fifth place, sophomore Kassidie Stimmel finishing in first with 3.89 meters. The Lakers went on to the races where Jessica Allison (9.61 sec) took third in the 60-meter hurdles.

During the Crossover, the men also did well in field events. Joshua Veldheer (1.92 meters) took first in the high jump, during the pole vault the Lakers took first and tied for second as well with Jacob Battini (5.02 meters), Alex Peskin (4.87) and Marcus Rubbers (4.87), respectively.

Baltes knew that there would be some challenges that the Lakers would face as they went to compete on different tracks that they weren’t used to, but he felt that they did well overall.

“I thought our athletes competed well in a different environment,” Baltes said. “The banked track can be a challenging adjustment when you hardly ever compete on it.”

GVSU went on to compete in the Gladstein Invitational where the women’s team collected multiple first place finishes. Nicole Sreenan (7.55 sec) finished first in the 60-meter dash along with Angelica Floyd who claimed third place (7.60 sec). Sreenan and her relay team for the 4×400 meter finished second with a time of 3.45.50.  

The women’s team placed second in two field events, fourth and fifth in another. Angelica Floyd claimed second place in the triple jump (5.63 meters), Bobbie Goodwin took second in the weight throw (20.69 meters) while Mitchell Robinson took fourth in the same event (18.06 meters) and Elizabeth Pyles took fifth in the shot put (13.34 meters).

During the men’s portion of the races, one of GVSU’s records was broken, the record for the 600 meter run was broken by Dennis Mbuta, who had the time of 1:18.85. Emmanuel Arop finished second in the 60-meter dash (6.88 sec) and in fourth in the 200 meter dash with the time of 22.33 seconds.

GVSU continued to place well in the mens field events as well with one second-place finish, two third-place and one fourth-place finish. In the weight throw, Justin Scavada (17.11 meters0 finished second, followed by Leon White (18.39 meters) who took third and Hunter Harding (18.32 meters). Scavada continued on in shot put where he also finished in third place where he threw 17.11 meters.

GVSU plans on continuing their hard work and is focusing on improving with the goal of competing well in the NCAA championship according to Baltes.

“We will need to continue to learn and make steady progess the next weeks while we shoot to move up the NCAA rankings to earn a spot at the championships in March,” Baltes said.

The Lakers will be back to competing on their home turf in Allendale where they will be hosting the GVSU Mike Lints Alumni Open Saturday, Feb. 1.