HOLLAND, MICH. -- The Trine University women's outdoor track and field team finished in third place after the final day of events of the two-day Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship hosted by Hope (Mich.) College in Holland, Mich.
The Thunder finished with a team score of 146 points to place third out of seven teams. Host school Hope took the team championship with 211 points and was followed by Albion (Mich.) College in second place with 157.5 points.
Trine had several competitiors advance to the finals of the running events that included a pair of event victories that were both recorded by sophomore Evie Bultemeyer (Fort Wayne, Ind./Homestead) in the 400 and 1500-meter runs. In the 400m, was the only runner to finish in under a minute with a Trine outdoor record time of 58.50 seconds, two tenths of a second faster than her preliminary time. Bultemeyer beat the previous school all-time mark by 16 one-hundredths of a second (58.66 seconds) which was held by Rebecca Flora and set in 2017. In the 1500m, Bultemeyer fell just two one-hundreths of a second shy of the MIAA record with a time of 4:35.50 to become a first-time outdoor champion in the event.
In addition, Bultemeyer finished as a runner-up in the 800-meter run by less than a second over the event winner with a mark of 2:18.06.
Among those who qualified for the finals, multiple athletes finished in the top-five in addition to Bultemeyer that included a fourth-place finish by sophomore Elizabeth Lohman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Caroll)in the 3,000-meter steeplechase following a time of 11:54.51.
Freshman Morgan Spade (Waterloo, Ind./DeKalb) posted the second quickest time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles (16.51 seconds) and then improved her time by two tenths of a second and placed fifth overall in a time of 16.31 seconds.
Fellow freshman Te'Shiya McCarter (Fort Wayne, Ind./Woodlan) came across the finish line in fourth place in the finals of the 100-meter dash with a mark of 12.68 seconds, which was an improvement over her qualifying time by 26 one-hundreths of a second. McCarter also advanced to the finals of the 200-meter dash and ran a time of 26.60 seconds in the prelims which she followed up with a mark of 26.20 seconds in the finals to place fifth.
Senior Hannah Blystone (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) competed alongside Bultemeyer in the 800m and finished fifth overall in a time of 2:23.54. She finished just behind her teammate in the prelims to qualify for the finals (2.27.84).
In the 400-meter hurdles, senior Jensyn Garrow (Archbold, Ohio/Archbold) completed the event in a time of 1:09.61 to record a top-five showing in fifth place.
Trine also had a pair of runner-up efforts in the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays. In the 4x100, the team of freshman Jasmine Carson (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central), Garrow, junior Kaylyn Forrest (Cassopolis, Mich./Ross-Beatty) and McCarter finished with a combined time of 49.65 seconds to finish second. Garrow, Carson, McCarter and Bultemeyer teammed up in the 4x400 to run an overall time of 4:10.13 to also place second.
In the remaining finals of the field events, the Thunder had one event winner in freshman Valerie Obear (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) who took the individual title in the discus with a throw of 134' 9.00" setting a Trine outdoor record by an even 10 feet. The previous mark was owned by Danielle Reenders during the 2013 season.
Junior Andrea Hagar (Goshen, Ind./Fairfield) also competed in the javelin and placed in the top-five with a distance of 124' 7.00" which was good enough for fifth place.
Freshman Stephanie Hartpence (Elkhart, Ind./Concord) placed in a tie for third in the high jump after clearing a height of 4' 9.00" as the lone Trine competitor in the event.
Freshman Autumn Presley (Pleasant Lake, Ind./Angola) rounded out the top finishes on the day with a fourth-place finish in the pole vault with a best height of 9' 8.00".
Trine is scheduled to compete in the two-day Dr. Keeler Invitational next Thursday-Friday, May 9-10 hosted by North Central College in Naperville, Ill. The first events on Thursday are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
