Huskies Trio Collects Hardware at GLIAC T&F Championships
ALLENDALE, Mich. -- The Michigan Tech track & field team saw three podium finishes on the final day of the GLIAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday.
Sam Lange repeated as runner-up in the men's metric mile while John Paul Norland (men's 800m) and Jamie Hendrickson (women's high jump) made the podium for the first time in their careers finishing second and third, respectively.
Quotable
"I was really proud of the competitive fire shown by our athletes at this meet," head coach Robert Young said. "Not everyone had their best day, but it was great to see them strive to give everything they had. Everyone knows when it's a championship meet it just means a little more and brought that heightened level of focus and drive that the situation requires."
John Paul Norland continued his heater by absolutely dwarfing his prior breakthroughs in the 800m final. His strength at this distance was really on display the second time down the backstretch and I'd take him in the homestretch sprint against just about anybody. We plan to see him over 800m again next week to see if he can keep it rolling and chase down a national qualifier.
Reilly had a great couple of days in the 400H. With a PR in the prelim to make the final and then another in the final to place much higher than her seed. She's been working hard developing her strength and technical abilities in this event and it was great to see that pay off.
Jamie continued her strong consistent season, she just missed the podium last year so for her to land a medal this year feels really good.
The men's 1500m was quite a show. Having all three possible Huskies in the final made it even more so and the moderate early pace made the last 400m frantic and fun. All three of our guys closed so well in this race and It was good to see that closing speed from Sam as he hasn't quite had it yet this year. Hopefully he can find it again next week at a last chance meet to land a mark that will make the national meet."
Thursday
The Huskies opened the championships with four qualifiers advancing out of the 1,500m preliminary round with Mady VanWieren making the final for the second-straight year taking sixth-place in the second heat in a personal-best time of 4:45.22.
Michigan Tech matched Grand Valley State in the men's metric mile sending Sam Lange, Nik Thomas and Ben Conlin to be the lone two teams to send a trio into the finals. Lange (3:57.83) and Thomas (3:57.05) earned big Q's while Conlin earned the final spot taking eighth in the first heat (4:00.79).
Three additional Huskies made strides and became potential point scorers with Reilly Lovercheck and John Paul Norland setting personal-bests en route to their first championship finals.
Lovercheck lowered her personal-best in the 400m hurdles clocking 1:04.89 to earn the final spot out of her heat and seventh amongst the field.
Norland continued to add to his breakthrough season, splitting his 800m race to take second in the second heat and take over a second off his personal-best from the Mustang Distance Carnival Open earlier this season, clocking 1:54.07 to have the fourth-fastest qualifier.
Ryan Schwiderson rounded out the qualifiers, winning the third heat of the men's 400m in 50.54 to advance to the final in his first open 400m at the conference meet.
The men of Michigan Tech saw four point scorers between the men's pole vault and 3,000m steeplechase.
Kyle Samluk took fifth-place in the steeplechase in 9:36.64, with Callen Carrier running 9:40.11 for seventh-place.
Toby Bonner and Landon Cosby tied for seventh-place, each garnering 1.5 points. Bonner cleared his opening three bars on his first attempt, clearing 14-9.75 (4.50m) before bowing out at the next height. Cosby opened at 14-9.75 (4.50m), also clearing the height on his first attempt before failing to clear 15-3 (4.65m).
Allie Moffit was the first point-scorer for the women, with her second mark of 106-6 (32.47m) advancing her into the finals and standing as her best mark to take eighth in the event.
Friday
Persistent storms Thursday evening pushed the 10,000m races to Friday morning seeing Cedar Gordon, Ingrid Halverson, Henry Snider and Sawyer Fowler make their conference debut. It was also the first 10,000m race for Halverson, Snider and Fowler.
Gordon (38:29.33) and Snider (32:18.19) led the way for the Black & Gold finishing just outside of scoring, placing ninth overall.
Jamie Hendrickson opened the field events for the Black & Gold on the final day of the conference championships, clearing her first three bars on the first attempt with her mark of 5-3.25 (1.61m) earning her a tie for third-place, improving on last year's fourth-place finish.
VanWieren wrapped up her final conference championship for Michigan Tech with a 12th-place finish in the women's 1,500m.
Sam Lange led the pack of three Huskies in the men's 1,500m running a strategic race moving up each lap. The Washington, Illinois, native made it interesting on the home stretch of the final lap covering the final 400m in 55.8, the fastest of the field, almost kicking down the indoor mile champion, Caleb Futter of the host school, Grand Valley State. Lange finished in 3:54.45 with Futter winning the event in 3:54.17.
Nik Thomas scored for the second-consecutive year with his eighth-place finish while Ben Conlin ran his second personal-best of the meet, nearly breaking 4 minutes with his time of 4:00.31.
Anna Schueller, the women's pole vault school record holder, improved on her place from last year taking fifth-place after clearing her opening height of 10-10.75 (3.32m) in rainy conditions that saw four competitors no height.
After making the finals in his first-ever open 400m at the GLIAC Championships, Ryan Schwiderson would set fire to the track in the final throwing down an impressive personal-best of 48.67 finishing just outside of the podium, scoring five points for the Huskies.
Schwiderson's time is the fastest 400m in at least the last 14 seasons, since the Track & Field Results Reporting Service began housing statistics (TFRRS) in the 2010 outdoor season, along with being the first Husky to go sub 49 since 2015.
After the remarkable performance by Schwiderson that fired up the entire Michigan Tech team, John Paul Norland delivered the goods in the men's 800m, stunning the entire field with a lethal second lap barreling down the final straightaway with champion aspirations coming just shy, taking runner-up honors to Grand Valley's Patrick Lyell who ran 1:51.14.
Norland, who entered the meet with a personal-best of 1:55.13 lowered his PR in the prelims to 1:54.07 and ran almost a three second personal-best in the final with his final lap of 55.6 being the fastest in the field, clocking 1:51.28 just outside of the Provisional qualifying time.
In her first 400m hurdles final, fresh off a small personal-best in the preliminary round, Reilly Lovercheck shaved more time off her personal-best running 1:04.19 to take fifth-place in the race.
First-year Sophia Rhein scored in her first conference meet taking fifth in the 5,000m running 17:49.04 to be the fastest freshman in the field.
Senior Kenny Abraham was the first finisher for the Huskies in the men's 5,000m in his first conference 5,000m since 2021, placing 10th in 15:06.55.
The men's 4x400m relay of Broderick Stewart, Connor Stefanovsky, Brandon Latta and Ryan Schwiderson concluded the scoring for Michigan Tech with their fifth-place finish in 3:24.85.
Up Next
A small contingent of Huskies will chase national qualifier marks next week for a chance to compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships May 23-25 in Emporia, Kansas, hosted by Emporia State University.