After a mediocre showing a week ago at the Indiana University Relays, the Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s track and field teams to combatted the sense of urgency they felt, defeating Saginaw Valley State University in an easy win at University Center, Mich.

“We really focused on moving some kids around in different events to work on some weaknesses,” said GVSU men’s and women’s track and field head coach Jerry Baltes. “It was positive for us to come out with the W.”

The men won 10 events and junior thrower Donny Stiffler hit the only individual national qualifying mark of the meet for GVSU, as the Lakers took home an 85.5-50.5 victory over the Cardinals.

“It was a lot smaller meet, but we didn’t let that hinder us from going out there and competing,” said senior sprinter Xavier Parnell. “I think that was one of the biggest things we needed to take away from the Indiana University Relays. It may be a bad night, bad day, bad race, but we still need to be out there competing to the best of our abilities because we have been training too hard, and are too great a team, to let that affect us. I feel that we did respond in a positive manner and we are just going to take that momentum into the next couple weeks.”

While Stiffler won the shot put with a toss of 17.43 meters, Parnell had arguably the biggest day for the Lakers. He took home victories in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.91 seconds and the 200-meter dash, finishing in 22.41 seconds, both meet records.

“I set a personal record in the 60-meter and I was pretty excited about that,” Parnell said. “Honestly, I didn’t feel like I was going that fast. I guess the training pays off and I can see the progression from week to week. I just hope to keep that going.”

Two meet records highlighted other strong performances by the GVSU men. Senior distance runner Anthony Witt finished the mile run with a time of 4 minutes, 17.37 seconds, running away with the victory, while sophomore jumper Patrick Livengood won the high jump at 2.03 meters.

The GVSU women also won 10 events, including a clean sweep of the field events, routing SVSU 83-53.

“This week a lot of us were more focused on competing against ourselves and not necessarily worrying about the competition,” said senior mid-distance runner Chanelle Caldwell. “We knew that no matter what we can run a fast time, have a better jump or farther throw without that competition. That was different. We were more mentally focused.”

Caldwell’s 4×400-meter relay team, consisting of sophomores Aileen Lemanski, Kalena Franklin and Leiah Hess, set a meet record and provisional qualifying mark with a time of 3:52.26.

Franklin also set a meet record in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing first in 8.76 seconds.

However, it was junior thrower Sam Lockhart who stole the show for the Laker women. She grabbed automatic qualifying marks in both the shot put, with a toss of 15.85 meters, and the weight throw, with a mark of 20.61 meters, both meet records.

Strong performances on Friday proved to be a turnaround from the Indiana University Relays. Each team will look to build on their accomplishments heading into the GVSU Big Meet this Friday in the Kelly Family Sports Center

“It’s time to step up and get the job done,” Baltes said. “There are still two opportunities beyond next week, but chances are they are not going to be as great of opportunities.”

zsepanik@lanthorn.com