Falcons To Blanket The State This Weekend

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University track and field team will send groups to two different meets this weekend, competing in distance events at the SPIRE Midwest Indoor Track and Field Open Friday and Saturday, along with throws and limited sprinters at the Findlay Open Friday.

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

ABOUT THE WEEKEND MEETS
BGSU will take its distance team to the SPIRE Midwest Indoor Track & Field Open in Geneva, Ohio Friday, held at the SPIRE Institute, to compete in the 5,000 at 7:45 pm. Becca Rae, Amanda Garlak, Andrea Alt, Allison Francis and Rebecca Schott are scheduled to run.

The Findlay Indoor Open and Elite Throws Competition will take place Friday at the University of Findlay's Malcolm Athletic Center. The tentative schedule of events is listed below.

Field Events
12:00 pm – Weight throw (Kayla Velasquez, Kori Reiser)
1:45 pm – Shot put (Krystin Reiser, Sydnee Matthew)
3:30 pm – High jump (Sydnee Matthew)
3:45 pm – ELITE shot put (Makenzie Wheat)
5:30 pm – Triple jump (Sydnee Matthew)
6:00 pm – ELITE weight throw (Brooke Pleger)

Running Events
5:20 pm – 60 prelims (Brittany Sinclair, Taylor Rambo)
6:00 pm – 60 finals
6:30 pm – 400 (Brittany Sinclair, Taylor Rambo, Connor Kempf)
7:20 pm – 200 (Kera Lamotte, Dorresha Green)

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
"Friday is a great opportunity to continue the momentum we've built in our first three meets of the year. The level of competition will be great in the throws at Findlay and we will see our first 5K of the season at SPIRE. We should be able to finish the month of January well and in position to capitalize on our last big competitions in February before the MAC Championships." BGSU head coach Lou Snelling

MAC RANKINGS
With the season underway, the Falcons have shown both elite top-end talent and depth. Three Falcons rank among the top three in the MAC in an event (Alicia Arnold is second in the 200 and third in the long jump, while Brooke Pleger is third in the weight throw). In total, seven Falcons have earned MAC automatic qualifying marks. In all, BGSU has 12 marks among the top 10 in the conference and another 18 place among the top 20. Listed below are all student-athletes ranked in the top 20 in the conference in an event.

60 – 5. Alicia Arnold 7.63 (AQ), 10. Dorresha Green 7.71, 20. Kyla Paster 7.81
200 – 2. Alicia Arnold #24.53 (AQ), 11. Brittany Sinclair #25.03, 14. Cortisha Short #25.16, 18. Taylor Rambo #25.34, 19. Gabrielle Edwards #25.43
400 – 14. Brittany Sinclair #57.70
3000 – 13. Becca Rae #10:09.72, 17. Amanda Garlak #10:18.10, 19. Andrea Alt #10:19.80
60 hurdles – 11. Demetra Taylor 8.94, 20. Sydnee Matthew 9.14
1600 relay – 6. Bowling Green #3:52.18
High jump – 9. Raven Porter 5-5, 15. Krystin Reiser 5-3
Long jump – 3. Alicia Arnold 19-0.5 (AQ), 11. Kyla Paster 18-3.75, 13. Raven Porter 17-10.75, 16. Sydnee Matthew 17-9.5
Triple jump – 5. Kyla Paster 38-3.5, 6. Tiera Parker 38-1.5, 13. Raven Porter 36-6.75
Shot put – 4. Makenzie Wheat 52-1 (AQ), 6. Aliyah Gustafson 49-4.5 (AQ)
Weight throw – 3. Brooke Pleger 66-0.5 (AQ), 6. Kayla Velasquez 56-11.5 (AQ), 11. Aliyah Gustafson 54-8, 15. Kori Reiser 52-6.75

AQ – Surpassed MAC automatic qualifying mark
# - Converted time

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Brooke Pleger currently ranks among the top 20 in the country in the weight throw, a position that would qualify her for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships. In total, five Falcons rank among the top 100 in the country in an event. They are listed below.

200 – 94. Alicia Arnold #24.53
Long jump – 79. Alicia Arnold 19-0.5
Shot put – 23. Makenzie Wheat 52-1, 52. Aliyah Gustafson 49-4.5
Weight throw – 16. Brooke Pleger 66-0.5

# - 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 an event. Redshirt freshman Aliyah Gustafson is ranked sixth in the MAC in the shot put and 11th in the weight throw. True freshman Kyla Paster is currently fifth in the league in the triple jump and 11th in the long jump. Finally, freshman Dorresha Green is tenth 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 and two weight throwers ranked among the top six in the conference. Sophomore Makenzie Wheat and redshirt freshman Aliyah Gustafson are both among the favorites in the shot put and Brooke Pleger and Kayla Velasquez are among the elite in the weight throw.

FALCONS CONTINUE TO RISE NATIONALLY
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. In the most recent poll, the team remains in the top 100 at No. 98. Prior to this year, the team had never been ranked ahead of No. 94 since the poll began in 2008. The squad's highest preseason ranking ever was No. 110 in 2012 and the Falcons have never finished the year 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.

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.

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Players Mentioned

Andrea Alt

Alicia Arnold

Gabrielle Edwards

Allison Francis

Amanda Garlak

Dorresha Green

Aliyah Gustafson

Connor Kempf

Kera Lamotte

Sydnee Matthew

Tiera Parker

Kyla Paster

Brooke Pleger

Raven Porter

Becca Rae

Taylor Rambo

Kori Reiser

Krystin Reiser

Rebecca Schott

Cortisha Short

Brittany Sinclair

Demetra Taylor

Kayla Velasquez

Makenzie Wheat

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Recent Results