Senior Cass Dobrowolski earned a NCAA Division II provisional qualifying mark in the high jump in the Bill Clinger Classic at Grand Valley State University where some Charger athletes competed Friday before the home Wide Track Classic on Saturday.
Dobrowolski placed fourth in the high jump with a mark of 2.09 meters in a field that included five of the top 10 high jumpers at the NCAA DII level.
“Traveling to Grand Valley was a good building block off Indianapolis last week,” Dobrowolski said. “There was high level competition, which is similar to what we will see during our conference championship, that helps to push each of us that little bit more.”
On the track at Grand Valley State, junior Lucy Minning took third in the 60-meter dash and second in the 200-meter dash with personal best times of 7.70 and 24.79 seconds respectively. Junior Francesca Federici, sophomore Zoe Burke and seniors Reese Dragovich and Josee Behling took first in the 4 x 400-meter relay with a DII top 20 and provisional qualifying mark time of 3:50.55. Dragovich also placed third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.43 seconds. Burke followed behind, placing fourth with a time of 58.88 seconds.
At the meet on Friday, freshman Sarah Chappelle placed third in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 8.92 seconds.
“These last few weeks of training have been about maximizing top speed and being explosive. The team had a very supportive, positive, and encouraging atmosphere,” Chappelle said.
On the track at home, freshmen Zach Self and Zealand Tarrant placed third and fourth in the 800-meter run with times of 1:59.89 and 2:00.21, respectively. Freshman Daniel Johnson placed fifth in the mile with a time of 4:28.75. Senior Jamahl Burke won the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.66 seconds.
“The race was smooth and felt strong, we’re just finishing a hard training block and we also competed the previous day, so yesterday was more about getting accustomed to competing on back to back days and treating it as a training day,” Burke said.
For the women, Chappelle placed third in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.08. Minning won the 60-meter and 200-meter dash with times of 7.77 and 25.24 seconds respectively. Junior Anna Lamoreaux placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.61 seconds. Zoe Burke also placed fifth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.45 seconds.
“Doubling up meets was tough, and we’re all very exhausted going into this week, but we all gave top performances,” Chappelle said.
Junior Anna Roberts won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:23.50. Freshmen Evyn Humphrey and Allison Kuzma placed first and third in the mile with times of 4:59.04 and 5:08.83 respectively. Sophomore Anna Stirton placed second in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 11:05.77 followed closely by sophomore Eleanor Clark who placed third with a personal best time of 11:06.41.
In the field at home, junior Ben Haas won the shot put with a mark of 17.54 meters, better than his provisional qualifying mark. Haas also placed second in the weight throw with a provisional qualifying mark of 19.35 meters. Senior Connor McCormick placed fourth in the pole vault with a mark of 4.66 meters.
For the women, senior Grace Chen took first in the triple jump with a mark of 10.75 meters. Freshman Olivia Newsome placed second in the weight throw with a provisional qualifying mark of 17.60 meters. Senior Mackenzie Morrison placed fifth in the shot put with a personal best mark of 12.60 meters. Junior Tara Townsend placed third in the pole vault with a mark of 3.90 meters that exceeded the provisional qualifying mark.
“The team on a whole definitely saw a lot of bright glimpses and a lot of my teammates have hit marks already that they didn’t hit until later in the season last year. So all in all, I think we’re in a really positive position and we have a lot of momentum which we can carry forward into the rest of indoors and into outdoors,” Jamahl Burke said.
The Chargers will compete next weekend at two meets again, sending some athletes to the Akron Invitational at the University of Akron on Jan. 31 while most are headed to the Jet’s Pizza Invite at Saginaw Valley State University Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.