ALLENDALE, Mich. – The Milwaukee men's track and field team had a strong first day of competition at the GVSU Big Meet on Friday, Feb. 14, in Allendale, Mich.
"I thought this first day at Grand Valley was a really good day," Head Coach
Andrew Basler said, "I think we should be looking to fire on all cylinders two weeks out of conference."
"I thought
Sam Conger had a breakthrough performance in the 60m hurdles," Basler added, "he went a lifetime best and that was huge for him."
Sam Conger had a big day at the Big Meet. The sophomore advanced to finals in the 60m hurdles after finishing eighth with a time of 8.22. A few hours later, Conger got in front of the hurdles one more time for finals and picked up a new personal record time of 8.11 for a seventh-place finish. His time moves him up to eighth in program history.
Austin Wallace (8.28) just missed qualifying for finals with a 10th-place finish in prelims while
Konner Fierek (8.33) was not far behind in 8.33 for 13th.
Michael Gorman once again qualified for finals in the 60m dash. The freshman crossed the line in 6.93 in prelims to finish in eighth place. During finals later in the day, Gorman finished ninth overall in nearly a personal record time of 6.91.
Nick Stugelmeyer (7.10) and
Austin Glinski (7.16) also competed in the 60m dash, finishing 34th and 43rd respectively.
Representing the Panthers in the 400m was
Luke Rapisarda. The sophomore finished 43rd with a time of 50.31.
Racing in the 5000m for the first time in their careers,
Josh Freitag crossed the line in fourth place out of a packed 35-runner heat with a time of 15:10.26 while
Ian Nadolski grabbed a second-place finish in his heat of 34 (15:23.89).
Trevor Wenzel also picked up a personal record time of 8:34.00 in the 3000m to take sixth in his heat while
Corey Thornton crossed the line shortly after to take 13th in the same heat in 8:41.51.
Nearly breaking his way into the Panther Top-10 list,
Michael Sippy ran a personal record time of 1:53.38 in the 800m to finish 21st overall. Teammate
Alex Cotter came soon after in 1:55.51 for 38th.
From the field, both
Austin Wallace and
Bryce McMurtry competed in the Long Jump Invite section. Wallace finished runner-up with a mark of 7.12m (23-4 1/2) while McMurtry claimed seventh at 6.62m (21-8 3/4).
Cole Gillitzer was the lone Panther in triple jump. The junior jumped to eighth place with a mark of 13.46m (44-2).
"I think we have really good momentum going into day two."
UP NEXT ON THE BLOCKS
The Panthers return to the GVSU Big Meet on Saturday, Feb. 15, for another full day of competition in Allendale, Mich. Action will get underway at 9 a.m. CT from the Kelly Family Sports Center.
