Falcons End WMU’s Reign With BG Opener Championship

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Bowling Green, Ohio – Bowling Green won seven events and Brittany Sinclair set a school record in the 300 as the BGSU Indoor Track & Field team won the BG Opener by 17 points over four-time defending champion Western Michigan Saturday. Seven different Falcons picked up individual victories and the team took the top two spots in three different events.

Bowling Green scored 137 points, an increase of 48 points over a year ago in the same meet, to post the squad's first multi-team meet championship since 2006. WMU finished as the runner-up with 120 points and Miami was third with 101 points. Ball State placed fourth with 78 points and Toledo was a distant fifth with 68 points. IPFW finished sixth with 20 points.

"We're at a point now where we're filling so many more events," BGSU Track & Field coach Lou Snelling said. "The development is happening for the student-athletes who have been here for a couple of years now. We're getting closer to the point we want to be and we have a really nice mix in terms of ability level, depth and youth."

Sinclair sparked the Falcons with a school and meet record time of 40.67 seconds in the 300, breaking the previous mark of 41.05 seconds set by Brittani McNeal in 2007. She was one of two BGSU senior to earn a victory during the day.

"It's awesome to see a senior go out with a school record," Snelling said. "It's something she can hang her hat on for the rest of her life. Short-term, it's something she can build on as she steps back up to the quarter (mile) soon."

The other senior to win an event during the day was Natalie Sommerville, who outdistanced the competition in the 600 with a winning time of 1:39.51, a time that was more than a second better than any other competitor.

Bowling Green's throws team looked just as strong as previous years as the Falcons took first and second in both the weight throw and the shot put. Redshirt freshman Aliyah Gustafson was second in both, finishing with a distance of 54-feet-6.5 in the weight throw and 47-7.25 in the shot put. Redshirt sophomore Kayla Velasquez won the weight throw with a personal best distance of 56-11.5 and sophomore Makenzie Wheat won the shot put at 49-2.5, just three inches shy of her personal best.

The Falcons earned a victory in one more field event, the triple jump. Freshman Kyla Paster edged out teammate Tiera Parker, a junior, to get the victory. Paster jumped a MAC-best 38-3.5 and Parker was only two inches behind at 38-1.5, which ranks as the second-best distance in the league this year.

Bowling Green also got strong performances from the team's sprinters. After graduating one of the top sprinters in BGSU history a year ago, Jeanette Pettigrew, the Falcons have rebuilt behind sophomore Alicia Arnold and freshman Dorresha Green. Green won the both the prelims and the finals of the 60, racing to a personal best time of 7.71 seconds in the finals – the fifth-best in the MAC this year. Arnold dominated for the 200 with the fastest time in the conference this year at 24.91 seconds.

To close out the meet, Bowling Green's 1600 relay team finished second with a time of 3:57.63. Behind Sinclair, freshman Cortisha Short, junior Demetra Taylor and redshirt sophomore Taylor Rambo, the Falcons broke the four-minute mark with ease and posted the third-best time in the MAC this year.

"January is our base with indoors and it's continuing to build," Snelling said. "February is when things get real. The fact that we're 48 points ahead of last year at this point is exciting. We'll see how far we can take it."

Bowling Green will work to make more strides in a week when the Falcons head to Ann Arbor to compete in Michigan's Simmons-Harvey Invitational Saturday.

BG OPENER
BOWLING GREEN 129, WESTERN MICHIGAN 110, MIAMI 95,
BALL STATE 76, TOLEDO 64, IPFW 20

Weight throw – 1. Kayla Velasquez 56-11.5, 2. Aliyah Gustafson 54-6.5
Long jump – 4. Raven Porter 17-10.75, 6. Alicia Arnold 17-7.5, 10. Krystin Reiser 16-4.25, 11. Africa Strodes (unattached) 15-11.5
High jump – 5. Raven Porter 5-1, 7. Sydnee Matthew 4-11, 9. Lexie Davis 4-9
Shot put – 1. Makenzie Wheat 49-2.5, 2. Aliyah Gustafson 47-7.25
Triple jump – 1. Kyla Paster 38-3.5, 2. Tiera Parker 38-1.5, 8. Africa Strodes (unattached) 34-5.5
60 prelims – 1. Dorresha Green 7.78, 4. Tiera Parker 7.83, 6. Cortisha Short 7.93, 7. Brianna Johnson 7.95, 15. Taylor Rambo 8.08
60 finals – 1. Dorresha Green 7.71, 4. Tiera Parker 7.83, 5. Brianna Johnson 7.88, 6. Cortisha Short 7.92
60 hurdles prelims – 8. Sydnee Matthew 9.45, 11. Krystin Reiser 9.73
60 hurdles finals – 4. Sydnee Matthew 9.14
200 – 1. Alicia Arnold 24.91, 4. Gabrielle Edwards 26.15, 5. Dorresha Green 26.17, 6. Brianna Johnson 26.22, 8. Kyla Paster 26.40
300 – 1. Brittany Sinclair 40.70, 3. Gabrielle Edwards 42.50,
400 – 4. Demetra Taylor 60.35, 9. Connor Kempf 62.57
600 – 1. Natalie Sommerville 1:39.51
3000 – 4. Becca Schott 10:38.51, 10. Jody Musser 11:05.35, 17. Kelsey Cogan 11:45.06
1600 relay – 2. Brittany Sinclair, Cortisha Short, Demetra Taylor, Taylor Rambo 3:57.63
Mile – 5. Maria Meredith 5:11.94, 8. Lindsay Kaatz 5:26.48

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Players Mentioned

Alicia Arnold

Kelsey Cogan

Lexie Davis

Gabrielle Edwards

Dorresha Green

Aliyah Gustafson

Brianna Johnson

Lindsay Kaatz

Connor Kempf

Sydnee Matthew

Maria Meredith

Jody Musser

Tiera Parker

Kyla Paster

Jeanette Pettigrew

Raven Porter

Taylor Rambo

Krystin Reiser

Cortisha Short

Brittany Sinclair

Natalie Sommerville

Africa Strodes

Demetra Taylor

Kayla Velasquez

Makenzie Wheat

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