GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. -- The Trine University women's indoor track and field team captured its first conference indoor title with its first place finish at the 2019 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship hosted by Calvin (Mich.) College.
The Thunder finished with an overall score of 155.50 points to take top honors. Hope (Mich.) College was second with 141 points and Albion (Mich.) College was third at 128 points.
Highlighting the meet was the performance of sophomore Evie Bultemeyer (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) who won a pair of events, and set one MIAA record, and finished as runner-up in another. Bultemeyer captured titles in the 800-meter run and the 3000-meter run and set a conference indoor record in the 800-meter after completing the race in a winning time of 2:17.20. She went on to capture the 3000-meter run with a time of 10:33.70 and then placed second in the one-mile run after crossing the finish line in a time of 5:18.52.
Also recording the top overall time in a running event was senior Jensyn Garrow (Archbold, Ohio/Archbold) in the 400-meter dash. Garrow ran a time of 1:00.01 to take top individual honors.
Trine also had a pair of top-10 efforts in the 800m in addition to Bultemeyer. Freshman Chloe Brittain (Breckenridge, Mich./Breckenridge) placed sixth in the event with a time of 2:26.15 and senior Hannah Blystone (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) clipped the tape in a time of 2:27.41 to place eighth.
Senior Lacie Piekarski (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake) and sophomore Ruth Luebcke (Harlem, Ga./Crown Point) joined Bultemeyer in the 3000-meter run and both placed in the top-10 with Piekarski finishing fifth in a time of 11:05.12 and Luebcke was seventh at 11:09.53.
In addition to Garrow's winning time in the 400-meter dash, freshman Te'Shiya McCarter (Fort Wayne, Ind./Woodlan) placed fifth in the event with a time of 1:02.89 and fellow freshman Jasmine Carson (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) placed 6th in a time of 1:03.87. Junior Massie Jo Maskow (Howe, Ind./Lakeland) rounded out the top-10 finishers in the event with a time of 1:05.16 which was good enough for ninth place.
In the mile, Blystone finished two spots behind Bultemeyer in fourth place after completing the event in a time of 5:19.95 and she was followed by Brittain in fifth place at 5:23.02.
After competing n the 3000-meter, Piekarski also ran in the 5000-meter run and crossed the line with a mark of 18:18.61 to finish in the the top-five in third place.
In the 200-meter dash, Garrow was one of three Trine runners in the top-10 with a leading time of 26.63 seconds to finish third overall. Junior Hope Scholma (Montpelier, Ohio/Montpelier) came in two spots behind Garrow in fifth place in a time of 27.01 seconds and junior Kaylyn Forrest (Cassopolis, Mich./Ross-Beatty) was sixth at 27.04 seconds.
Trine had four runners advance to the finals of the 60-meter dash where Scholma posted the top time for the Thunder by improving her preliminary time by nine one-hundreths of a second with a finals time of 8.11 seconds to place third. Forrest, Garrow and McCarter also qualified for the finals. Forrest placed fifth in the finals with a mark of 8.20 seconds and was followed by Garrow in seventh place in a time of 8.72 seconds. McCarter had the third quickest overall time in the prelimaries (8.10 seconds), but ran a time of 9.02 seconds in the finals to place eighth.
Freshman Morgan Spade (Waterloo, Ind./DeKalb) was the lone Trine competitor to advance to the finals of the 60-meter hurdle event where she placed third overall after running a time of 9.73 seconds, a full tenth of a second faster than her preliminary mark.
Rounding out the top finishes in the running events was a pair of runner-up showings in the distance medley relay and the 4x400-meter relay. The team of sophomore Elizabeth Lohman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll), freshman Paige McGonigal (Coventry Twp., Ohio/Coventry), freshman Madi Howard (Stockbridge, Mich./Stockbridge) and Luebcke combined to post a time of 13:27.34 in the distance medley relay to place second.
Garrow Carson, Brittain and Blystone had the second-fastest time in the 4x400-meter relay of 4:14.69.
The other individual event winner for Trine came in the field events with junior Andrea Hagar (Goshen, Ind./Fairfield) posting the top overall mark in the weight throw of 49' 6.50". Freshman Valerie Obear (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) also competed in the event and finished in fifth place after a heave of 44' 7.50".
Hagar also competed in the shot put where she placed fifth after a best attempt of 36' 3.00" and was followed by freshman Anna Kmec (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) who also placed in the top-10 after a toss of 34' 8.50" which was good enough for 10th overall.
Sophomore Abigail Kuhlman (Napoleon, Ohio/Napoleon) had a trio of top-10 efforts with her highest finish coming in the triple jump where she placed sixth following a leap of 33' 1.00". She also competed in the long jump and ended up eighth after a mark of 15"4.25".
In the pole vault, three athletes place in the top-five with freshman Autumn Presley (Pleasant Lake, Ind./Angola) leading the way with a third-place effort after clearing the bar at a height of 9' 8.00". Kuhlman matched the height set by Presley, but was fourth via judge's decision. Freshman Mackenzie Bristol (Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West) finished in fifth place following a mark of 9' 2.25".
Trine is scheduled to compete in the Pointer Last Chance Meet hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point next Saturday, Mar. 2 in Stevens Point, Wis. The meet is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. EST.
