Falcons Home For Senior Night Friday

Friday, January 23

Bowling Green, Ohio

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Tom Wright Open

January 22, 2015 | Women's Track and Field

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University track and field team will hold Senior Night Friday as the Falcons play host for the Tom Wright Classic at Perry Field House. It is slated to be the team's final home event of the 2014-15 season. Field events begin at 5 pm and running events start at 6 pm.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
The BGSU track and field team can be followed all winter/spring long through a number of ways. Social media links are listed below and live results and live video (as available) can be found on BGSUFalcons.com as meets provide those opportunities.

Twitter - @BGAthletics and @BGXCTrack
Instagram – BGFalcons and bg_xctrackandfield
Facebook – BGSU Athletics
YouTube – FalconAthletics

SENIOR NIGHT
BGSU will recognize four seniors for their contributions to the track and field program Friday night. Brooke Pleger, Krystin Reiser, Natalie Sommerville and Brittany Sinclair. The class has been an integral part of the steady improvement of BGSU Track and Field, with all four posting numerous school records and/or top 10 all-time results. Sinclair is the school record holder in the indoor 300 as well as being a part of three relay school records. Pleger is the BGSU record holder in the hammer throw and weight throw, while Sommerville ranks second all-time at BGSU in the indoor 600. Reiser ranks second all-time in the indoor pentathlon and is third in the heptathlon for the outdoor season.

ABOUT THE TOM WRIGHT CLASSIC
The Tom Wright Classic will take place at Perry Field House Friday evening, beginning with five events at 5 pm and running events at 6 pm. Admission is $3 or $1 for non-BGSU students with ID. BGSU students with ID and children under the age of 10 are admitted free. Miami, Toledo, Dayton and Ohio will all be competing at the meet and team scores will be kept. Individual events will be scored 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 and relays will be scored 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. Scoring is limited to two individuals per institution in an event and one relay team per institution in the 1600 relay. The schedule of events is listed below.

Field Events
5 pm – Weight throw (Shot put to follow)
5 pm – Long jump (Triple jump to follow)
5 pm – High jump
5 pm – Pole vault

Running Events
6 pm – 3,000 (men's race followed by women's race)
6:30 pm – 300
6:40 pm – 60 hurdles prelims
6:50 pm – 60 prelims
7:00 pm – Mile
7:10 pm – 400
7:20 pm – 60 hurdles finals
7:25 pm – 60 finals
7:30 pm – 600
7:40 pm – 200
7:50 pm - 800
8:10 pm – 1600 relay

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
"We're really a family and we've grown together through this building process. Knowing where we started and knowing that we are going to leave the program in a better position is something we take pride in." – Senior Krystin Reiser on the senior class

MAC RANKINGS
While the season has just begun, the Falcons have shown both elite top-end talent and depth. Alicia Arnold currently ranks second in the MAC in the 200, while Makenzie Wheat and Aliyah Gustafson have earned MAC automatic qualifying distances in the shot put. As well, Kayla Velasquez is fifth in the weight throw with a MAC automatic qualifying toss. In total, 12 Falcons rank among the top 10 in the conference and another 15 place among the top 20. Listed below are all student-athletes ranked in the top 20 in the conference in an event.

60 – 9. Dorresha Green 7.71, 19. Kyla Paster 7.81
200 – 2. Alicia Arnold #24.53 (AQ), 11. Brittany Sinclair #25.03, 16. Cortisha Short #25.38, 17. Gabrielle Edwards #25.43, 19. Kera Lamotte #25.57
400 – 11. Brittany Sinclair #57.70
60 hurdles – 17. Demetra Taylor 9.06, 20. Sydnee Matthew 9.14
1600 relay – 8. Bowling Green #3:54.52
High jump – 9. Raven Porter 5-5, 18. Krystin Reiser 5-2.25, 20. Lexie Davis 5-1
Long jump – 7. Kyla Paster 18-3.75, 9. Raven Porter 17-10.75, 12. Alicia Arnold 17-7.5, 15. Sydnee Matthew 17-6.75, 18. Tiera Parker 17-4
Triple jump – 4. Kyla Paster 38-3.5, 5. Tiera Parker 38-1.5, 12. Raven Porter 36-6.75, 20. Sydnee Matthew 35-0.5
Shot put – 4. Makenzie Wheat 52-1 (AQ), 5. Aliyah Gustafson 49-4.5 (AQ)
Weight throw – 5. Kayla Velasquez 56-11.5 (AQ), 8. Aliyah Gustafson 54-8

AQ – Surpassed MAC automatic qualifying mark
# - Converted time

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Sophomore Makenzie Wheat broke the school record with a shot put throw of 52-feet-1, a mark that places her among the top 20 in the country and puts her in contention for a berth at the NCAA Championships. In all, the Falcons have four student-athletes ranked among the top 100 in the country in an event. They are listed below.

200 – 61. Alicia Arnold #24.53
Shot put – 19. Makenzie Wheat 52-1, 40. Aliyah Gustafson 49-4.5
Weight throw – 93. Kayla Velasquez 56-11.5

# - Converted time

GOLD RECORDS
Senior Brittany Sinclair and Sophomore Makenzie Wheat have etched their names in the BGSU record book this year. At the BG Opener, Sinclair broke the school record in the 300 with a time of 40.67 seconds, better than the old record of 41.05 seconds set by Brittani McNeal in 2007. Wheat broke a 21-year old school record in the shot put at the Simmons-Harvey Invitational, throwing the apparatus 52-feet-1.

FRESHMEN CONTRIBUTING EARLY
The Falcons have gotten strong production out of the freshman class this year with three first-year student-athletes ranking among the top 10 in the Mid-American Conference in five different events. Redshirt freshman Aliyah Gustafson is ranked fifth in the MAC in the shot put and eighth in the weight throw. True freshman Kyla Paster is currently fourth in the league in the triple jump and seventh in the long jump. Finally, freshman Dorresha Green is ninth in the conference in the 60.

HEAVING HEAVY OBJECTS
The Mid-American Conference is one of the best in the country at producing throwers and Bowling Green's throws program is one of the best in the MAC. Already, BGSU has two shot putters ranked among the top five in the conference in sophomore Makenzie Wheat and redshirt freshman Aliyah Gustafson. In the weight throw, redshirt sophomore Kayla Velasquez and Gustafson rank among the top eight in the conference. On top of that, two of the team's top weight throwers, Brooke Pleger and Kori Reiser (both outdoor track and field NCAA Regional Qualifiers), are yet to compete during the indoor season.

THE COMPUTER SEES IMPROVEMENT
Bowling Green was ranked No. 92 in the country in the preseason NCAA Division I National Team Computer Rankings, the program's highest ranking ever. The team's previous high ranking was No. 94 a year ago. The poll began in 2008 and Bowling Green's previous highest preseason ranking was No. 110 in 2012. The team has never finished the year ranked higher than No. 107 – a mark achieved last year.

MAC PRESEASON RANKINGS
The coaches of the Mid-American Conference picked Bowling Green to finish 10^th in the 2014-15 preseason poll. Kent State was picked to win the league, followed by Akron, Eastern Michigan, Buffalo and Western Michigan. Toledo was sixth, with Central Michigan, Miami and Northern Illinois following. After Bowling Green, Ohio and Ball State were picked 11^th and 12^th.

YOUTH STILL RULES
While the BGSU Track and Field program has matured over the past few years, the team is still extremely young. The team is slated to compete 48 times in individual events Friday and 14 of those will come from freshmen. Sophomores are entered 16 times, followed by juniors 11 times and seniors seven times. In total, there are only four seniors on the 2014-15 roster to go with nine juniors, 12 sophomores and 13 freshmen.

RETURNING POINT SCORERS
Although the team does have youth, the Falcons also return more experience than in previous seasons. In fact, six current student-athletes have scored at the MAC Indoor Championships at least once in their careers. Alicia Arnold, Taylor Rambo, Brittany Sinclair and Demetra Taylor have all raced to a top eight finish at the MAC Indoor Championships in the 1600 relay and Sinclair has added a top eight result in the 400. Makenzie Wheat finished sixth in the shot put a year ago as a freshman and Brooke Pleger has finished fourth and fifth in the weight throw in the past two years.

CLIMBING TOWARDS THE TOP
Under head coach Lou Snelling, the Bowling Green indoor track and field program took a big step forward a year ago in the Mid-American Conference and the Falcons will look to replicate that improvement this year. The Falcons placed 11^th out of 12 teams in each of Snelling's first two seasons, scoring a combined 26 points at the MAC Championships during those two seasons. Last year, BGSU scored 38 points and tied for eighth place.