Women's Track & Field | 3/1/2015 7:50:00 PM
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Wayne State University women's indoor track and field team scored 21 points on Sunday to finish seventh in the 15-team field at the 2015 GLIAC Championship.
"It was a tremendous team performance this weekend," stated head coach
Rick Cummins. "We scored in the throws, jumps, sprints, relays and distance. A well balanced team. We had several NCAA provisional marks, school records and personal bests. Team, team, team ... all three coaches are proud of our team today."
The Warriors finished with 43 points, while Grand Valley State won with 156.5 points. Ashland placed second (107 points) and was followed by Hillsdale (86), Tiffin (76.50), Saginaw Valley State (54) and Findlay (52). Trailing WSU were Malone (23), Lake Erie (21), Northern Michigan (19), Ferris State (12), Walsh (9) and Northwood (4). Lake Superior State and Ohio Dominican did not score.
Last year Wayne State finished eighth with 26 points, after accumulating 12 points in 2013, in the inaugural year of the program.
WSU's top performance on Sunday was freshman
Jessie Kluz (Sterling Heights, Mich. / Sterling Heights/ MMSTC) finishing fourth in the high jump at 1.66m (5-05.25), which is an NCAA Provisional height.
Sophomores
Dazmonique Carr (Lawnside, N.J. / Haddon Heights) and
Leah Ellis (Battle Creek, Mich. / Central) placed fifth (57.49) and eighth (58.60), respectively in the finals of the 400m.
Sophomore
Christina Kollien (Alpena, Mich.) finished sixth in the finals of the 60m hurdles in a time of 8.83, which is an NCAA Provisional time and also a school record.
Wayne State had two scorers in the 3000m race as junior
Kayla Balfour (St. Clair, Mich.) placed seventh in a time of 9:55.91, with senior
Lauren Gagnon (Waterford, Mich. / Waterford Mott) finishing eighth (9:56.49). Both times were NCAA Provisional qualifying times and were the first in school history to break the 10-minute mark.
The 4x400 relay quartet of sophomore
Imani Bush (Canton, Ohio / South), Ellis, freshman
Karrington Seals (Farmington Hills, Mich. / North Farmington) and Carr finished fifth in a time of 3:54.59 to set a new school record.
Redshirt freshman
Elizabeth Herriman (Adrian, Mich. / Sand Creek) earned an eighth-place finish in the shot put with a toss of 13.28m (43-07.00), which is an NCAA Provisional distance. Also competing were redshirt freshman
Gabrielle Herriman (Adrian, Mich. / Sand Creek) and freshman
Lauren Bohn (Windsor, Ont. / E. J. Lajeunesse Catholic H.S.), who both set personal bests.
Redshirt freshman
Jewel Wilson (Voorhees, N.J. / Eastern) finished 11th in the triple jump with a distance of 10.38m (34-00.75).
Sophomore
Leah Coonrod (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Gull Lake) was WSU's top finisher in the mile placing 12th in a personal-best time of 5:06.13. Also running were senior
Kayla Smade (Columbus, Mich. / St. Clair) and junior
Anne Okonowski (Dearborn, Mich. / Divine Child) with Okonowski having a personal-best time.
Smade was the Warriors top runner in the 800m race finishing 16th in a personal-best time of 2:19.98. Also competing were Coonrod and senior
Alyssa Auth (Eastpointe, Mich. / East Detroit).
The Wayne State student-athletes with NCAA Provisional marks will find out Tuesday if they have qualified for the NCAA Championships.
