University Center, MI - The Grace Christian University track & field teams kicked off their indoor season at the Saginaw Valley State University "Holiday Open" on Saturday against host SVSU, Alma College, Davenport University, Hope College, Lawrence Tech, Oakland University, Siena Heights, and Spring Arbor.  With a distance squad coming back from a strong cross country season combined with field and sprint athletes who have been itching to compete after months of preparation, the Tigers entered the meet hungry for big results.

Grace head coach, Gerry Verwey, was happy with the Tigers' effort.  "We really held our own today and drew the attention of coaches from the bigger schools who started asking where we came from," remarked Coach Verwey.  "We were matched up against NCAA Division 1 and 2 schools, as well as other schools much larger than us and were in the fight in every event.  I am pleased with where we started today and it is clear now what we need to work on going into the winter months."

Men's Highlights

• Junior Kent Herring (Evart, MI) had a big day leading the Tigers with three new indoor track personal records to add to his name.  In his first event of the meet, men's long jump, Herring set a new personal best mark of 5.29m.  He then followed that up with a PR in shot put of 8.09m, then laced up his spikes for a new indoor personal best in the 800m run with a time of 2:13.79.

• Freshman Jonathon Williams (Charlotte, MI) ran the fourth fastest indoor mile time in school history, finishing in 5:14.92.

• Junior Angel Becerra (Allendale, MI) had a strong opening meet performance in shot put with a best toss of 8.61m.

• Sophomore Ben Bird (Allendale, MI) ran the second fastest 600m time in school history at Saturday's meet, finishing in a time of 1:45.22.

 

Women's Highlights

• Freshman Kierra Flegel (Kent City, MI) made her debut in the women's 5,000m run, completing the 16 ⅔ laps on the SVSU 300m track in a time of 22:41.77, the second fastest indoor 5k time in school history.

• Senior Sarena Overbeek (Jenison, MI) set a new personal record in the 800m run with a time of 2:55.10, which was nearly 7 seconds faster than her previous best time set in 2020.  She also ran a strong mile race earlier in the meet, finishing in a time of 6:20.83.

• Freshman Maty Temrowski (Fenton, MI) looked impressively strong in both the mile and 800m races.  Her 800m time of 2:48.12 was only a little over a second off of her all time personal record.  She also ran a strong mile race, moving up through the field and finishing in a time of 6:20.21.

 

The Tigers will take what they learned from Saturday's meet and put it into their training through the remainder of December and through the Winter Break as they prepare for their next indoor meet at Grand Valley State University on January 14. 

Additionally, the Grace track & field teams are actively recruiting for future Tigers to join their growing program.  Anyone interested in learning more about Grace's recruiting standards and process is invited to reach out to the coaching staff at either gverwey@gracechristian.edu (sprints/jumps), kproctor@gracechristian.edu (distance), or jrodgers@gracechristian.edu (throws).