MTUTF Completes Golden Grizzlies Invite

ROCHESTER, Mich. -- The Michigan Tech track & field team saw multiple personal-best season's-best and event debuts at the Golden Grizzlies Invite, in Rochester, Michigan on Saturday.

This was a great meet that was well organized with blue skies and fantastic competition," head coach Kristina Owen said. "There were 23 teams and almost a thousand athletes competing, we all felt super excited to go out and have a fantastic day and then it was pretty average with a few really good performances."

"We had a mixed day overall," assistant head coach Robert Young added. "We came away just shy in more cases than we'd like on hitting some strong marks. Many of our student-athletes deeper down our depth chart did produce strong results showing big improvements and it especially showed in the 1,500m and 5,000m events."

"Kyle's steeple was impressive to watch the whole way and it felt like he was in control of the race for the duration and he closed really well to pull away for the win."

The men's 3,000m steeplechase was highlighted by a big personal-best by Kyle Samluk, who won the event in a time of 9:15.52, just a few seconds short of the NCAA Provisional Qualifying time. Teammate Stephen Loparo ran a season-best time of 9:31.41, just shy of his personal-best, to take fourth in the race.

"Samluk dropped 15 seconds off his time from last week's opener and just missed a provo time by three seconds and he's looking like he's coming into form. Hot on his heels is Stephen Loparo who we think is going to have a great second half of the season" Owen added.

The Huskies had a strong showing in the 800m, backed by a victory by senior Clayton Sayen on the men's side, just narrowly running a new season-best time with his 1:51.32 effort. Close behind was teammate Sam Lange running an impressive 1:51.97. Danny Ezzo made his season debut taking runner-up honors in the first heat running a personal-best time of 1:57.00

"Clayton and Sam ran a really thrilling 800m going 1-2 with just .65 seconds between them," Owen mentioned. "Then they turned around to pace the first 2k of the men's 5,000m race to set Drew Kolodge up for an attempt to go after the school record. It was a really fun race to watch but Drew was still feeling the 10,000m from Raleigh in his legs and wasn't able to hold the pace over the second half. That record is definitely at risk and I think we've got a couple of men who have a shot at breaking it by the end of the season."

The men's 5,000m showcased the men of Michigan Tech placing three among the top-ten with Drew Kolodge taking runner-up honors in 14:32.44, Tucker Ringhand placed third in a new personal-best time of 14:41.97 and Nick McKenzie broke the 15-minute barrier with his time of 14:59.06 placing him ninth in the heat.

On the women's side, Jesse Jacobusse turned out a third-place effort of 2:15.93.

Senior Laura Lyons lowered her season's best in the women's 400m, covering the lap in 1:00.50 to take eight-place overall out of the first heat.

After almost running a personal-best in his season opener, Andrew Lewis would lower his personal-best at the Golden Grizzlies Invite in the 400m hurdles, taking third overall and breaking 55 seconds with his time of 54.88.

"Lewis looks to be rounding into top form at the right time and should post some really good marks when the weather warms up a bit more," Young mentioned.

In the women's metric mile, Mady VanWieren ran half a second off of her personal-best in just her second time racing the event this season, running 4:47.17 to take seventh-place in the second heat.

On the men's side, the duo of first year Nik Thomas and Nick Niemi made their season debut with times of 4:01.07 and 4:01.22. Thomas' time of 4:01.07 was enough to win the second heat by over half a second while Niemi's personal-best effort placed him ninth in the first heat.

Claire Endres also accounted for a big personal-best in the women's 3,000m steeplechase running 12:21.30 to lead the team in the event. Hannah Kilpatrick (12:58.24) and Katelyn Feldpausch (13:20.46) rounded out the competitors in the event for Michigan Tech.

The women's 5,000m showcased three Huskies being led by Michelle Bollini who placed fifth overall in 17:46.86. Hannah Loughlin and Cedar Gordon made their outdoor debut placing 11th (18:20.38) and 12th (18:24.49), respectively.

Of note, in the second heat of the men's 5,000m, the Huskies saw five sub-15:30 performances led by first year Donavan Mattson (15:16.48), Michael Marshall (15:20.59), Sawyer Fowler (15:23.18), Sam Marshall (15:26.20) and Lucas Betzoldt (15:27.53). Stanley Elder also dipped under 15:30 in the first heat with his 15:23.15 effort.

The Huskies also showcased a men's 4x400m relay team of Lewis, Jacob Potter, Ryan Schwiderson and John Paul Norland, posting the second-fastest time of the day with a time of 3:25.86.

Koball posted back-to-back personal-bests in the discus on his third and fourth throw with heaves of 144-05 (44.02m) and 148-04 (45.22m), respectively.

"The discus throw went right until there wasn't enough light to compete anymore but Noah Koball didn't seem to mind as he threw back-to-back throws in the finals providing us a bright spot to close out the meet," Young added. 

Also in the field events, the Huskies were led by Toby Bonner in the javelin throw (148-10), Eric Smith made his long jump debut with a leap of 19-08.75, Katherine Jarvis had a discus throw of 113-06, while Noah Koball posted a 44-10.25 mark in the men's shot put.

Up Next

The Huskies will enjoy a weekend without competition before traveling to La Crosse, Wisconsin, for the Phil Esten Challenge, a two day meet hosted by UW-La Crosse on Apr. 21-22.