Gustafson Wins MAC Shot Put Championship As Falcons Soar On Day Two

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Toledo, Ohio – Redshirt sophomore Aliyah Gustafson won the Mid-American Conference Championship in the shot put and the Bowling Green State University track and field team had an impressive day of competition at the MAC Championships Friday. BGSU climbed into sixth place after day two of the meet and positioned itself for a strong finish Saturday.

The Falcons have 30 points and trail Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois by just three points each for fourth place. Akron leads the way with 55 points, while Central Michigan and Kent State are tied for second at 44 points. Ohio is four points behind the Falcons and Miami sits in eighth place with 19 points. Toledo has 18 points, followed by Buffalo with eight. Ball State and Western Michigan each have one point in the team standings.

Gustafson made things dramatic in the shot put, winning the event on her final attempt. Although she entered the meet as the top seed, Gustafson hardly looked like the favorite early and sat in sixth place after the prelims. While she did qualify for the finals as one of the top nine throwers in the prelims, she did not improve her positioning after fouling on the first of her three throws in the finals. While she made a slight improvement in her fifth throw, she had fallen to seventh place going into the final round.

But Gustafson did what she's done multiple times during the season, launching her best throw on her final attempt, moving past the entire field with a toss of 51-feet-4.5 and recording the fourth-best toss in program history. When Central Michigan's Devene Brown failed to improve her mark on the final throw of the competition, Gustafson became just the third Falcon to win the shot put MAC Championship, joining Beth Manson (in 1998 and 1999) and Kerri McClung (in 2005). It is the fourth year in a row in which a Bowling Green student-athlete has won the MAC title in an event (Brooke Pleger won the hammer throw in 2013, 2014 and 2015).

"I was nervous at the beginning," Gustafson said. "Then I was even more nervous that I wasn't doing well and that carried on for longer than I'd like. It was a heart-racer waiting until the last minute."

The championship was the culmination of a rocky 16 months for Gustafson. She showed promise a year ago as a redshirt freshman but tore her ACL in January of 2015, an injury that prematurely ended her season.

"I was in the training room twice a day every day," Gustafson said. "I stayed in BG over the summer to get back to where I am. It took a lot of work to get here and it means the world to me to win. I couldn't have done it without my coach and without (athletic trainer) Matthias (Reiber)."

But Gustafson wasn't the only star of the day for the Falcons. In fact, in the same event junior Makenzie Wheat earned a fourth place finish with a throw of 50-1.75. She has improved her finish in every year at the MAC Outdoor Championships, breaking onto the scene with an eighth place finish in 2014 and then climbing to fifth a year ago.

Earlier in the day, redshirt freshman Rachel Walny continued her impressive first year of college competition, placing third in the 10,000 with a time of 35:06.81. She was the conference Freshman of the Year in cross country and bounced back from an injury that kept her out of the entire indoor track and field season. In fact, it was the first time she had run the 10,000 in college. It was the fourth-fastest time in BGSU history. Teammate Rebecca Schott ended seventh in the event in 35:57.12, breaking into the school record books with the 10^th fastest time in program history.

Trials took place in many of the running events Friday and senior Alicia Arnold qualified for Saturday's finals in both the 100 and the 200. She posted the third-fastest time in the 100 at 11.94 and was sixth in the 200 at 24.24. Redshirt junior Taylor Rambo earned the lost spot to finals in the 400 with a season-best time of 55.76 seconds. In the 1500, redshirt freshman Cassandra Boyle was third in her heat to earn a bid to Saturday's finals in 4:51.15. Although Kyla Paster just missed a spot on the podium in the long jump, she earned a personal best and moved into 10^th place in program history at 18-10.5 to finish ninth.

Bowling Green will conclude the MAC Championships Saturday at the University of Toledo. The Falcons get underway with both the discus and the high jump at 10 am. Both the 400 relay and 1600 relay will be contested on the final day of competition, as well as the triple jump and 5000. The Falcons will also have competitors in the finals of the 100, 200, 400 and 1500.

MAC Championships
Akron 55, Central Michigan 44, Kent State 44, Eastern Michigan 33,
Northern Illinois 33, Bowling Green 30, Ohio 26, Miami 19,
Toledo 18, Buffalo 8, Ball State 1, Western Michigan 1

100 trials – 3. Alicia Arnold 11.94, 7. Dorresha Green 12.04, 15. Kera Lamotte 12.28
200 trials – 6. Alicia Arnold 24.24, 9. Kera Lamotte 24.41, 16. Cortisha Short 24.69
400 trials – 8. Taylor Rambo 55.76
1500 trials – 9. Becca Rae 4:50.57, 12. Cassandra Boyle 4:51.15
10000 – 3. Rachel Walny 35:06.81, 7. Rebecca Schott 35:57.12
400 hurdles trials – 16. Camerone Bryant 1:05.90
3000 steeplechase – 10. Andrea Alt 11:03.96
Shot put – 1. Aliyah Gustafson 51-4.5/15.65m, 4. Makenzie Wheat 50-1.75/15.28m
Long jump – 9. Kyla Paster 18-10.5/5.75m, 11. Jade Nolan 18-7/5.66m, 15. Raven Porter 18-2.25/5.44m

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