Falcons Hit Six MAC Auto Marks In Season-Opener

Friday, December 4

Allendale, Mich.

3:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

GVSU Holiday Open

December 05, 2015 | Women's Track and Field

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

Complete Results

Allendale, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University track and field team opened the season Friday at the GVSU Holiday Open, hitting six automatic qualifying marks for the Mid-American Conference Championships and setting numerous personal bests.

"Across the board, we are a better team than we were last year at this time," BGSU Track and Field Coach Lou Snelling said. "Six MAC auto marks is the most we've ever had in December. The potential is there for us to put together our best year since the 1990s."

All of the automatic qualifying marks came in field events, led by the long jump and the shot put.

Freshman Jade Nolan dominated the long jump, winning the event with a leap of 19-feet-6, amazingly coming on her first collegiate jump. Senior Alicia Arnold was second at 19-3.25 as both locked up bids to the MAC Championships.

In the shot put, redshirt sophomore Aliyah Gustafson and junior Makenzie Wheat also were the top two finishers at the meet as they threw 49-2.5 and 49-1.5 respectively. Both earned MAC automatic qualifying marks.

Senior Tiera Parker set a new personal best in the triple jump by almost a full foot, posting a distance of 39-4, good enough for a MAC automatic mark and a second place finish. The final qualifying distance came in the weight throw as redshirt junior Kori Reiser placed second overall at 58-4.75.

Gustafson came up just shy of earning automatic entrance to the MAC Championships in two events as she set a new personal best in the weight throw with a toss of 56-9.25. Junior Raven Porter was just one centimeter from doing the same in the high jump, reaching a height of 5-6.

While Bowling Green's sprinters didn't hit any qualifying times, they showed plenty of promise. In the 60, sophomore Dorresha Green qualified for finals with a time of 7.71 seconds and then ran 7.70 to come up just shy of her best time of 7.69 seconds from a year ago. Both sophomore Cortisha Short, at 7.83 seconds, and junior Brianna Johnson, at 7.84, ran personal bests.

In the 200, both senior Kera Lamotte and Johnson set new career best times at 25.24 seconds and 25.59. Junior Gabrielle Edwards added a personal best time in the 300 at 41.43 seconds.

Bowling Green will now have more than a month off before hosting the BG Opener Jan. 9 at Perry Fieldhouse at 11:30 am.

BGSU Results
60 prelims – 3. Dorresha Green 7.71, 8. Cortisha Short 7.83, 11. Brianna Johnson 7.84
60 finals – 3. Dorresha Green 7.70, 7. Cortisha Short 7.90
200 – 5. Kera Lamotte 25.24, 7. Brianna Johnson 25.59, 8. Cortisha Short 25.68
300 – 5. Gabrielle Edwards 41.43
400 – 19. Cheyenne Oswald 60.25, 20. Paichence Carter 60.47
600 – 8. Colleen Reynolds 1:44.70, 11. Natalee Cole 1:47.37
60 hurdles prelims – 5. Demetra Taylor 8.98, 12. Sydnee Matthew 9.24
60 hurdles finals – 8. Demetra Taylor 9.05
1600 relay – 6. Alicia Arnold, Colleen Reynolds, Dorresha Green, Natalee Cole 4:01.60
High jump – 6. Raven Porter 5-6
Long jump – 1. Jade Nolan 19-6, 2. Alicia Arnold 19-3.25, 7. Raven Porter 17-8.75
Triple jump – 2. Tiera Parker 39-4, 5. Jade Nolan 37-10.75, 8. Kyla Paster 37-1.25
Shot put – 1. Aliyah Gustafson 49-2.5, 2. Makenzie Wheat 49-1.5
Weight throw – 2. Kori Reiser 58-4.75, 5. Aliyah Gustafson 56-9.25