Falcons Break Two School Records, Lead MAC Championships After Day One

Friday, February 23

Bowling Green, Ohio

TBA

Bowling Green State University

MAC Indoor Championships

Falcons Break Two School Records, Lead MAC Championships After Day One

February 23, 2018 | 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 scored 32 points on the opening day of the Mid-American Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships and the Falcons lead the team standings after the opening day. BeJai Fray broke the school record in the pentathlon and Aliyah Gustafson did the same in the weight throw to help the Falcons to early success.

Day One Results (.pdf)

TEAM STANDINGS

Bowling Green scored 32 points to lead Eastern Michigan by two points after the first day.
Akron sits in third with 28 points, followed by Western Michigan with 23 points and Kent State with 22 points. Buffalo rounds out the top half of the standings with 19 points.
Miami sits in seventh with 12 points, while Northern Illinois has nine. Toledo and Central Michigan each scored seven points, Ohio has six and Ball State is yet to get in the scoring column.
A year ago, Bowling Green sat in fifth place after the opening day of the MAC Championships with 17 points.

FRAY'S LONG DAY

BeJai Fray successfully navigated five events and placed third overall in the pentathlon with 3,757 points.
The 3,757 points broke her own school record by 122 points.
To break the record, Fray set a new personal best with a distance of 13.44m in the shot put. While she didn't set any other personal bests, she was extremely close in all of the other four events.

GUSTAFSON THE NEW QUEEN OF THE WEIGHT THROW

Aliyah Gustafson, who already holds the school record in the shot put, broke the weight throw school record and placed second in the event at the MAC Championships.
On her second attempt of the day, Gustafson broke the previous school record of 20.79m, set by Brooke Pleger in 2015. She threw 20.82m to move into second place.
Gustafson remained in second by breaking the record again on her fifth throw, tossing the weight 21.11m.
Entering the weekend, Gustafson's performance would have placed her among the nation's top 16 and qualified her for the National Championships. She will await results from around the country to see if her distance holds.

THE WEIGHT THROW LED THE WAY

Along with Aliyah Gustafson's record-breaking performance, Elizabeth Iversen finished fourth and Kaila Butler sixth as Bowling Green earned 16 points in the event.
Iversen battled her way to a fourth place finish, throwing 19.88m on her fifth attempt to climb into that position.
Butler set a new personal best distance of 19.20m on her initial throw of the competition and then improved upon that to 19.28m on her third throw of the day.

LEE LOGS LOTS OF TRACK TIME

Peyton Lee put together a tremendous day, placing fifth in the pentathlon and somehow finding the time in between to finish fourth in the 60 hurdles prelims to qualify for Saturday's finals.
Over the course of the five events of the pentathlon, Lee set a new personal best in the 800 with a time of 2:35.85 and also put together four other solid performances. Those results earned her a fifth place finish.
Lee was seeded seventh in the 60 hurdles entering the day but was able to run her prelim heat in 8.55 seconds to earn the fourth-fastest time. She will compete in finals Saturday.

OTHER STRONG PERFORMANCES

Rachel Walny ran a strong race in the 5,000 and finished sixth in 16:54.49. She passed a few fading runners over the final laps to pick up three points for the team.
Bowling Green's distance medley relay team placed sixth overall at 12:02.14, less than two seconds shy of a top five time in school history. Jessi Lindstrom, Brianna Tidmore and Rachel Stute set the stage for the final leg and Rachel Durbin moved up from ninth place to finish sixth down the stretch. It's the first time the DMR team has scored points at a MAC Championship since placing fourth in 2011.
Ryen Draper qualified for the finals in the 400 with a time of 56.71 seconds. She was seeded No. 16 entering the meet but placed seventh in the prelims.
Savannah Nevels just missed finals in both the 60 and the 200. She was 10^th in the 60 with a time of 7.65 seconds and ninth in the 200 in 24.83 seconds. She missed finals by just .01 seconds in both events.

IN COACH SNELLING'S WORDS

"We feel very good about it (being in first place). It was a good day for sure. We talked about momentum and I think we built a lot of that today."
"You love to see that from a senior (BeJai Fray's performance). She went after it. She should be very proud of what she did."
"Going into the weekend, that mark (Aliyah Gustafson's weight throw performance) gets you to nationals. We'll see how it shakes out, but again, that's a senior who's a gamer who had a huge PR. I'm really excited to see what she does tomorrow in her primary event, the shot put."

TOMORROW'S SLATE

Bowling Green returns to action at 11 am Saturday with both the high jump and the shot put.
BGSU also competes in the triple jump at 1:30 pm, the mile at 1:40 pm, the 60 hurdles finals at 2:10 pm, the 400 finals at 2:35 pm, the 3,000 at 4:10 pm and the 1600 relay at 4:40 pm.

MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Bowling Green 32, Eastern Michigan 30, Akron 28, Western Michigan 23,
Kent State 22, Buffalo 19, Miami 12, Northern Illinois 9,
Toledo 7, Central Michigan 7, Ohio 6

BGSU Results
60 prelims - 10. Savannah Nevels 7.65
200 prelims - 9. Savannah Nevels 24.83, 11. Cortisha Short 25.15
400 prelims - 7. Ryen Draper 56.71, 13. Chasatea Brown 57.36
5000 - 6. Rachel Walny 16:54.49, 18. Elena Lancioni 17:38.36
60 hurdles prelims - 5. Peyton Lee 8.55
Distance Medley Relay - 6. Jessi Lindstrom, Brianna Tidmore, Rachel Stute, Rachel Durbin 12:02.14
Long jump - 14. Kyla Paster 5.47m (17-11.5)
Weight throw - 2. Aliyah Gustafson 21.11m (69-3.25), 4. Elizabeth Iversen 19.88m (65-2.75), 6. Kaila Butler 19.28m (63-3.25)
Pentathlon - 3. BeJai Fray 3,757, 5. Peyton Lee 3,462