Terre Haute, IN - The Grace Christian University Track & Field teams wrapped up a three-day meet at Indiana State University this past weekend where they faced their biggest competition of the season.  The Tigers faced off against Butler, DePaul, Marquette, Purdue Northwest, Valparaiso, Indiana State, Olivet Nazarene, and 26 other large schools in the "Gibson Invitational", allowing the athletes a chance to push themselves against some of the best competition in the Mid-West.

"We didn't come down here to just show up," stated Coach Verwey during this weekend's competition.  "We are here to compete. It would be a waste to not challenge ourselves to push through barriers this weekend when we have no excuse to not excel with this level of competition.  This is our chance to see where we stand in terms of Nationals in a few weeks."

Day 1 Highlights:

• Kent Herring (Evart, MI) completed his first five events of the decathlon and had a monster day. Considering that he was competing against NCAA DI and DII schools, it was impressive that he finished day 1 in 16th place out of 21 participants in the decathlon. Herring found new personal records in the 100m dash (12.11s), long jump (5.86m), and the 400m (55.75s), as well as tying his PR in high jump (1.55m). Shot put was a little less than he hoped for but he survived with a fair amount of points in that event too.

Day 2 Highlights:

• At the conclusion of the men's decathlon on day 2, Herring shattered the school record for total points in the decathlon, finishing with 4,327 points and 13th out of 18 competitors who finished the event. Herring started day 2 with a giant new personal best time in the 110m hurdles (20.55s) and then had solid results in discus (22.51m), pole vault (2.45m), and javelin (30.97m). He ended the decathlon with a 6th place overall finish in the 1500m run (4:55.02).

• Aidan Gansert (Fort Wayne, IN) threw 27.22m in hammer and 35.54m in javelin for a solid day.  Angel Becerra (Allendale, MI) had a best toss of 18.70m in javelin.

• Ben Bird (Allendale, MI) had his second best time in the 5k on Friday night, finishing in 18:50.67.  Alyssa Gennety (Jackson, MI) also recorded a decent effort in the 5k with a time of 21:04.82.

Day 3 Highlights:

• The exclamation point on the final day of competition was Sarena Overbeek (Jenison, MI) dropping 30 seconds off of her season best time in the 1500m run, finishing in 6:21.22).

• Becerra and Gansert competed well in the shot put and discus competitions on day three, as well.  Becerra led the Tigers in discus with a toss of 25.22m, while Gansert led the way in shot put at 10.99m.

The Tigers final meet of the season before the NCCAA National Championships will be this Friday and Saturday, April 26-27, at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, MI.