OAKLAND TRACK/SWIMMING NOTEBOOK: Oakland completes action at the Grand Valley’s ‘Big Meet’
ALLENDALE, Mich. — Desiree Pettiford earned a third place finish in the 200-meter dash (25.26), Serena San-Cartier finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.15) and Ryan Balzer earned a 15th-place finish in the high jump (5 feet 10.75 inches) as the Oakland men’s and women’s track and field teams completed action at the Big Meet hosted by Grand Valley State at the Kelly Family Sports Center on Saturday.
“The Big Meet is a tough environment with almost 2,000 athletes competing over two days,” said head coach Paul Rice. “Our athletes always seem to respond well in that environment. Our athletes and coaches have worked very hard this season and it’s so great to see that hard work paying off at the right time.” Oakland competed against over 50 schools and more than 1,800 athletes over the two-day event.
On the women’s side, Oakland earned top-10 performances from Jennifer Lane in the high jump (5 feet 3.25 inches), and seventh place finishes by Shaunte Roberts in the 60-meter dash (7.90) and Katelynne Hartman in the shot put (42 feet 5.5 inches).
For the men, the Golden Grizzlies earned top-30 finishes from Nick Bobek finishing 16th in the 60-meter hurdles (8.95) and David Magnotte in the 800-meter run with a 27th finish (1:57.17).
“I am very proud of our athlets and our coaches,” added Rice. “We will spend the next two weeks tapering a bit and fine tuning in preparation for the league championships.”
Oakland’s next meet will be The Summit League Indoor Championships hosted by IPFW in Fort Wayne, Ind. starting Feb. 24.
OAKLAND FINISHES STRONG AT MICHIGAN OPEN
ROCHESTER HILLS — Grant Harding, Ben Utesch and Ben Vavra all earned first-place finishes as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming teams completed action at the 2012 Michigan Open Sunday at the OU Aquatic Center.
Harding won his second event of the weekend in the 100-meter backstroke finishing with a time of 57.32. Utesch earned a first-place finish in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:13.10 and Vavra won the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 24.10.
Mark Loegel and Jake Quinnan finished third and fourth in the 200-free with times of 2:01.36 and 2:02.71, respectively. Andre Latour earned a sixth-place finish in the 200-meter breast stroke with a time of 2:46.50.
On the women’s side, Megan Hunter finished a solid weekend of action with a second-place finish in the 100-back and Shelby Porter earned a runner-up finish in the 200-breast with a time of 2:40.58. Nichole Contesti earned a sixth-place finish in the 200-free with a time of 2:13.91.
OAKLAND POST TOP-10 FINISHES AT MICHIGAN OPEN
ROCHESTER HILLS — Scott Yarbrough won the 100-yard breaststroke and Grant Harding won the 100-yard freestyle as the Oakland men’s and women’s swimming teams competed at the Michigan Open on Saturday at the OU Aquatic Center.
Yarbrough finished with a time of 1:06.00 to finish first in the 100-breast and Harding finished with a time of 51.89 in the 100-free followed by Zach Johnson with a time of 53.01 to finish second. Joe Rodgers earned a runner-up finish in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:11.92 and Amr el Sayed finished second in the 500-free with a time of 4:06.96. Mark Loegel and Ben Utesch finished second and third in the 100-yard butterfly with times of 58.62 and 58.92, respectively.
Shelby Porter earned a third-place finish in the 100-breast with a time of 1:17.86. Megan Hunter finished fourth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:33.31 and sixth in the 200-IM with a time of 2:32.05. Nicole Contesti earned a fifth place finish in the 500-free with a time of 4:37.55.
Oakland will continue action at the Michigan Open tomorrow in the OU Aquatic Center.
OAKLAND FINISHES STRONG AT YSU NATIONAL MEET
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Lia Jones finished second in the 3,000-meter run and David Magnotte finished runner-up in the 1-mile run by only .18 hundredths of a second as the Oakland men’s and women’s track and field teams completed action at the Youngstown State National Invitational on Saturday at the Watson and Tressel Training Site.
“I am very happy that we had so many season best performances and also some personal bests,” said head coach Paul Rice. “We will look to build on this excitement and these great performances as we get ready for the Big Meet next week.”
Jones finished the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9:47.98 to earn a second-place finish. The Golden Grizzlies also saw top-10 finishes from Breanna Peabody in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.94 to finish fourth and Shaunte Roberts in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.96 to finish sixth.
Magnotte finished second by less than two hundredths of a second with a time of 4:15.29 in the 1-mile run. Niklas Rippon (Lake Orion) finished third in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.34 and Kenny Wall finished fifth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:46.65.
OAKLAND SINES AT DAY 1 OFYSU NATIONAL MEET
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Micah Jones earned a pair of runner-up finishes as the Oakland men’s and women’s track and field teams completed the first day of action at the Youngstown State National Invitational Friday night at the Watson and Tressel Training Site.
Jones finished in second place in the high jump and the long jump with final marks of 1.63 meters and 5.80 meters, respectively.
The Golden Grizzlies earned top-10 finishes from Shannon Getchen in the weight throw with a final mark of 14.31 meters and Marcus Travis in the 500-meter dash with a time of 1:08.88.
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