Kuzma at Nationals last month. Courtesy | Ashley Van Hoose

Sophomore Ally Kuzma and junior Tommy Flud broke the school and Great Midwest Athletic Conference records in the outdoor 10K and javelin throw, respectively, at their meets April 3.

Kuzma won her heat at the Stanford Invitational in California in 33:10.83, the 15th fastest time in NCAA Division II history, and was named G-MAC track athlete of the week. The previous school record of 34:05.75 was set by Kristina Galat in 2016 at the same meet, and the G-MAC record of 33:57.06 was set by Findlay’s Hannah Thompson in 2022.

Kuzma said she’s hit her stride in track after training with Coach R.P. White for the last two years.

“I feel like it always takes a year to transition from high school to college,” Kuzma said. “My coach has just been amazing. He’s done a great job with us. You look at junior Eleanor Clark, she has had huge jumps too, and a lot of the other girls are making a lot of progress too. He has it down, he knows his stuff, and you just have to trust the process.”

At the Michigan State University Spartan Invite in East Lansing, Flud’s throw of 62.62 meters beat his own record of 62.17 meters from freshman year by approximately two feet. 

“To be honest, it hurt,” Flud said, who recently recovered from a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament. “The NCAA changed the rule that affects our warmups, so we don’t get the same warmup that we’ve had the last few years. That’s been something that we need to adjust to, and last weekend was the first meet that I’ve been at that actually enforced that new rule. And it was cold and windy again, and with the cold in general, just everything’s tight and it’s going to hurt a little bit.”

Javelin throwers previously began warmups with everyone lining up and throwing 10 to 15 meters, but the NCAA banned what is known as “picking” for safety reasons. Now athletes can only throw longer distances on the runway during warmups.

“The analogy that I’ve heard someone use is it’s kind of like if you’re thrown into a weight room and told to put two plates on the bar and bench press it,” Flud said. “You don’t really have that build up to the higher intensity reps like you used to.”

Junior Ethan Dorrell took third in javelin, setting a new personal best with a throw of 52.26 meters. 

In the hammer throw, sophomore Dominic Scharer came in second with a personal best throw of 62.21 meters. Senior Matthew Belanich also set a personal best in hammer with a throw of 57.14 meters.

In women’s javelin, freshman Devan Foster took first with a personal best throw of 40.77 meters. Junior Amelia Lutz set a personal best in hammer throw with a mark of 53.32 meters, followed by junior Olivia Newsome in ninth with a mark of 50.32 meters.

On track, Clark took fourth in the 5K with a time of 17:50.87. Sophomore Evelyn Overlease took third in the 400-meter in 58.42, and freshman Jessica Church took sixth in 1:00.31. Sophomore Sarah Chappelle came in fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.56, followed by sophomore Baelyn Zitzmann in sixth with a time of 15.65.

At the Stanford meet, senior Ross Kuhn took fourth in the 1500-meter in 3:44.25, just one second off the school record he set in 2025.

In men’s track at MSU, freshman Wyatt Widolff won the 400m and set a new personal best time of 48.82, followed by freshman Jack Polizzi, who took third with a personal best time of 49.36. Widolff also took second in the 100-meter with a time of 10.87.

In field events, senior Alfonso Garcia won the triple jump with a mark of 13.63 meters, just a centimeter short of his personal best. Garcia said he was not planning on competing in the meet due to poor weather, but assistant track and field coach Brian Thill changed plans when the weather turned.

“I wasn’t really prepared for a meet, but you’ve got to take the weather as it comes and stay prepared whenever,” Garcia said. “It was fun to get out there and be at a school that’s nearby. There was a lot of good competition just because MSU is Division I.”

Senior Tara Townsend placed third in pole vault with a clearance of 4.15 meters. In the men’s pole vault, senior Connor McCormick placed 10th with a clearance of 4.60 meters.

The Chargers’ heptathlon competitors participated in Hillsdale’s Outdoor Midweek Multi April 8-9 and the rest of the team will compete in the Al Owens Invited hosted by Grand Valley State University April 10-11.