Allendale, MI - In their final tune-up before the outdoor season begins, the Grace Christian University Track & Field squads had a solid day at Grand Valley State University on Friday. Led by season best results from freshman Jude Vargo and senior Ben Bird, the Tigers wanted to keep the momentum they have built since indoor nationals rolling into the outdoor season and Friday's competition at Grand Valley provided an opportunity to make that happen.
Teams: Calvin, Cornerstone, Davenport, Grace Christian University, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley, Hope, Muskegon Community College, and Purdue Northwest (Ind.)
Meet Highlights:
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Jude Vargo (Penn Hills, PA) earned two big personal records in the 400m (1:00.55) and the 200m (26.71s).
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Ben Bird (Allendale, MI), in his final indoor meet as a Tiger, had a huge season best result in the 3,000m run, finishing in 11:32.
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Also in his final indoor meet for the Tigers, senior Kent Herring (Evart, MI), who has been fighting a cold all week, capped off the day with two solid results in both long jump (5.46m) and the 400m (58.34).
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Freshman Austin Engle (Spring Lake, MI) was in good form all day, finishing with positive results in long jump (5.56m) and the 60m dash (7.66s)
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Freshman Kaylee Morris (Mancelona, MI) won her 60m race in a time of 8.87s, just a few hundreds of a second off of her personal best time in the event.
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Sophomore Aidan Gansert (Fort Wayne, IN) had set a new season best mark in shot put with a toss of 11.96m.
The Tigers will now transition into their outdoor track and field season. Although some of the same events from indoor carry into the outdoor collegiate season, there are some that change or are unique to just outdoor track. Event changes that can be expected for the upcoming outdoor season include:
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For sprinters, the 60m dash and hurdles for indoor is replaced by the 100m dash and 100m hurdles (women) or 110m hurdles (men). Additionally, the outdoor season adds the 400m hurdles.
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For distance runners, the mile during indoor is replaced by the 1500m in outdoor. Also, the open 3k of indoor track becomes the 3k steeplechase event during outdoor. One outdoor addition for distance runners is the 10k on the track.
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In multi-events, the women's pentathlon/men's heptathlon of the indoor season are replaced by the women's heptathlon/men's decathlon during outdoor.
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In the field events, the outdoor season adds discus, hammer throw, and javelin competitions.
The first outdoor meet for Grace will be at Indiana Wesleyan University (Marion, IN) on March 21-22, followed by a return to Cedarville University (Ohio) on March 29.
