Falcons Return To Crossroads Of America For Second Straight Weekend

BALL STATE CHALLENGE
MEET INFORMATION	April 15-16, 2016 (1 pm / 10 am)
LOCATION	Muncie, Ind. (Ball State University Track)
LIVE STATS	Delta Timing
MEET INFO	Ball State Challenge Info
OTHER INFO	Outdoor School Records / Performance Lists

Muncie, Ind. – The Bowling Green State University track and field team returns to Indiana for the second consecutive week, competing at the Ball State Challenge just seven days after taking part in Indiana State's Gibson Invitational. Limited events take place Friday with a heavier Saturday for competition.

Multiple MAC teams are expected to be at the meet, including Toledo and Miami to go with the host school.

"We will see some MAC competition again this weekend," BGSU Track and Field Coach Lou Snelling said. "The weather looks like it's going to be some of the best we've seen this year. The short sprints and jumps will be a key focus for us this weekend."

Weather played a role in tempering expectations during the past weekend at the Gibson Invitational and the Falcons were limited in their number of season bests. BGSU will look to break away from that performance and continue to add more MAC automatic qualifiers.

The Falcons enter the meet with five MAC automatic qualifiers thus far. Makenzie Wheat and Aliyah Gustafson rank second and third in the shot put in the league and are among the top 21 in the entire East region. The Falcons have also carried over their successful jumping season from indoors and the team has five of the top 20 MAC competitors in the triple jump and four among the top 20 in the long jump.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
The BGSU track and field team can be followed all 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 @BG_XCTrack
Instagram – BGFalcons and BG_XCTrack
Facebook – BGSU Athletics
YouTube – FalconAthletics
Snapchat – BG_XCTrack

ABOUT THE BALL STATE CHALLENGE
The Ball State Challenge will take place Friday and Saturday at Ball State University Track in Muncie. Among the MAC schools in attendance are Miami, Toledo and the hosts. The schedule of events, with BGSU entrants, is listed below:

Friday, April 15
2 pm (app.) – Hammer Throw (Allie Farmer, Kori Reiser)
4:30 pm (app.) – Javelin (Andrea Weirauch)

Saturday, April 9
11 am (app.) – Discus
12 pm – Long jump (Alicia Arnold, Jade Nolan, Kyla Paster, Raven Porter, Africa Strodes)
12:30 pm – 5,000 (Mackenzie McMillin, Jody Musser)
1:25 pm – 1,500 (Cassandra Boyle, Rachel Walny, Elena Lancioni, Rebecca Schott, Rachel Durbin)
2 pm – Triple jump (Jade Nolan, Tiera Parker, Kyla Paster, Africa Strodes)
2:15 pm – 400 (Gabrielle Edwards)
2:30 pm – 100 (Alicia Arnold, Dorresha Green, Brianna Johnson, Kera Lamotte, Taylor Rambo, Cortisha Short)
2:30 pm – High jump (Raven Porter)
2:50 pm – 800 (Natalee Cole)
3:10 pm – 400 hurdles (Camerone Bryant)
3:30 pm – 200 (Gabrielle Edwards, Dorresha Green, Brianna Johnson, Kera Lamotte, Taylor Rambo, Cortisha Short)
4:00 pm – 3,000 steeplechase (Andrea Alt)

MAC RANKINGS
Bowling Green's first three weeks of the outdoor season have been strong and the Falcons already have 16 student-athletes ranked among the top 10 in the Mid-American Conference in an event and another 26 ranked among the top 20. In the shot put, Makenzie Wheat and Aliyah Gustafson are ranked second and third, while Jade Nolan ranks third in the long jump. Listed below are all of the Falcons ranked among the top 20 in the MAC currently:

100 – 11. Dorresha Green 12.13, 12. Tiera Parker 12.17, 14. Kera Lamotte 12.20, 15. Cortisha Short 12.23, 18. Alicia Arnold 12.32, 19. Gabrielle Edwards 12.35
200 – 11. Kera Lamotte 24.88, 12. Alicia Arnold 24.95, 19. Cortisha Short 25.20
400 – 5. Taylor Rambo 56.59, 16. Gabrielle Edwards 58.26
800 – 15. Cassandra Boyle 2:16.80
1500 – 15. Cassandra Boyle 4:41.59
5000 – 7. Jasmine Redman 17:29.90, 8. Becca Rae 17:32.78, 15. Allison Francis 18:06.70, 18. Elena Lancioni 18:10.52
10000 – 7. Rebecca Schott 36:51.21
400 hurdles – 16. Taylor Rambo 1:06.27, 20. Camerone Bryant 1:08.33
3000 steeplechase – 8. Andrea Alt 10:59.82
400 relay – 6. Bowling Green 46.88
1600 relay – 8. Bowling Green 3:56.89
High jump – 4. Raven Porter 5-7/1.70m (AQ)
Long jump – 3. Jade Nolan 19-9/6.02m (AQ), 10. Raven Porter 18-10/5.74m, 15. Alicia Arnold 18-3.25/5.57m, 20. Tiera Parker 18-0.5/5.50m
Triple jump – 6. Tiera Parker 38-0.25/11.59m, 10. Kyla Paster 37-6/11.43m, 15. Jade Nolan 36-5.75/11.12m, 18. Raven Porter 35-5/10.79m, 20. Africa Strodes 35-4/10.77m
Shot put – 2. Makenzie Wheat 51-0.75/15.56m (AQ), 3. Aliyah Gustafson 50-6.25/15.40m (AQ)
Discus – 11. Kori Reiser 147-3/44.88m, 12. Aliyah Gustafson 144-0/43.90m, 13. Kayla Velasquez 143-10/43.84m
Hammer throw – 4. Kayla Velasquez 185-6/56.54m (AQ), 10. Kori Reiser 174-10/53.29m, 20. Allie Farmer 154-4/47.05m
Javelin – 17. Andrea Weirauch 107-0/32.61m

AQ – Surpassed MAC automatic qualifying mark

REGIONAL RANKINGS
In most events, the top 48 student-athletes in the region will advance to the NCAA East Region preliminary round. A year ago, BGSU sent four student-athletes to the regional meet. Makenzie Wheat, a two-time regional qualifier, is pacing BGSU in the early going, ranking 19^th in the region in the shot put. Four Falcons are currently in line to qualify for regionals and they are listed below:

Long jump – 31. Jade Nolan 19-9/6.02m
Shot put – 19. Makenzie Wheat 51-0.75/15.56m, 21. Aliyah Gustafson 50-6.25/15.40m
Hammer throw – 34. Kayla Velasquez 185-6/56.54m

FALCON 5 MILER COMING IN MAY
The annual Falcon 5 Miler will take place May 21, sponsored by Dave's Running. The Lil' Falcon Half-Miler kicks off the day at 8 am with the five-mile race following, touring the scenic campus of BGSU. For full details CLICK HERE.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results