ADRIAN, MICH. -- The Trine University women's track and field team completed the first day of competition at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Outdoor Championships hosted by Adrian College in Adrian, Mich. The Thunder are currently second as a team.
Trine finished day one with a team score of 40 points to sit in second place and trails Hope (Mich.) College by 9.5 points (49.5). Calvin (Mich.) College rounds out the top three with 39 points.
Highlighting the finals events was senior Kara Eck (Auburn, Ind./DeKalb) who captured the hammer throw for the fourth straight year with a winning toss of 174' 8.00" (53.23 meters). Her mark also improves her season-best effort to rank in the top-10 nationally in the event. In addition to Eck, sophomore Andrea Hagar (Goshen, Ind./Fairfield) took second place in the hammer with a throw of 141' 3.00" (43.05 meters).
Hagar went on to get in the winner's circle in the discus with a distance of 139' 5.00" (42.49 meters). Freshman Jenny Flora (Greenfield, Ind./Greenfield Central) placed two spots back in third place with a mark of 130' 2.00" (39.68 meters).
In the long jump, freshman Abigail Kuhlman (Napoleon, Ohio/Napoleon) posted a top-10 finish with a best effort of 16' 8.75" (5.10 meters).
On the track, the only finals event was the 10,000-meter run that saw junior Lacie Piekarski (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake) finished in the top-10 in fifth place with a time of 40:25.84.
The Thunder also had several competitors qualify in the prelims for the finals tomorrow that included a pair of athletes qualifying in the 800-meter run in freshman Evonne Bultemeyer (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) and junior Hannah Blystone (Carmel, Ind./Carmel). Bultemeyer crossed the finish line in a time of 2:28.35 in the prelims and Blystone ran a time of 2:22.40 to also qualify for the finals.
Trine also had a pair of competitors qualify for tomorrow's finals in multiple events in sophomore Massie Jo Maskow (Howe, Ind./Lakeland) and junior Jensyn Garrow (Archbold, Ohio/Archbold).
Maskow tied the school outdoor record in the 400-meter hurdles and had the fourth fastest time with the top-eight finishers qualifying for the finals at 1:10.0. Her time equals Karen Johnson who also posted the mark in the event. Maskow went on to record a preliminary time of 16.93 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles which put her sixth overall to also move on to the finals.
Garrow reached the finals in both the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes. In the 200m, Garrow recorded a time of 27.55 seconds and then followed that with a mark of 1:00.90 in the 400m to place third overall in the event.
The women's track and field team will concluded the two-day MIAA Outdoor Championships tomorrow (Friday, May. 4) at Adrian College with the first events scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.