Sports

Lakers battle fatigue at Bob Eubanks Open

By Aaron Brandt GVL Staff Writer
1/24/2010

Friday did not turn out to be a record-setting day for the Grand Valley State University indoor track team, but it was an important day for its overall progression.

GVSU used this past Friday's Bob Eubanks Open meet as an unscored training session in preparation for future meets. The result was satisfactory to GVSU head coach Jerry Baltes.

"This meet was OK, and that's a good way to sum it up," Baltes said. "There were not too many spectaculars but a few good things. Hopefully we come out of it healthy and keep progressing."

The health of the team was a major issue at the meet, as fatigue built up from several weeks of difficult training caught up to the team.

"We are coming off of a really hard lifting program right now, so everyone's kind of dragging, but we've had a lot of personal bests for everyone," said senior thrower Emily Fox. "After we get into competition mode for training, everyone's going to blow up even more."

Baltes, too, noticed his team was worn out on Friday.

"We're tired right now, so hopefully by backing off the next couple of weeks we will see some positive results," he said. "We're getting back in the swing of things school-wise and we're training pretty hard, so everything is just sort of catching up."

The solution to this lull is in the hands of the athletes, said senior Joey Latz.

"We just have to use our heads, train right and get our bodies plenty of rest and the adequate nutrition they need to repair themselves," he said. "As runners, we pretty much go hard every week; even in our off days we are still going out there and breaking a sweat."

Even with their tired legs, the Lakers were able to come up with a few solid performances. Several Lakers provisionally qualified for the NCAA national meet.

Senior Lauren Bergstrom, and sophomores Chanelle Caldwell, Karie McDonald and Monica Kinney all provisionally qualified in the 800-meter run in which the team took the top five positions. Sophomore Emily McKerchie also qualified in the pole vault with a jump of 11-9 3/4.

Junior Lauren Buresh won the shot put with a distance of 45-5 1/4 while senior Maegan Doyen won the high jump with a mark of 5-5 3/4.

For the men, senior Nate Miller won the high jump with a mark of 6-8 3/4, junior Nathaniel Smith won the triple jump with a mark of 45-1 and sophomore Matt Armstrong won the shot put with a toss of 53-3.

Looking to the future, the team will begin to resemble its final form starting with the GVSU Open on Jan. 27.

"A lot of kids will get back to their primary events," said Baltes. "Our quarter milers will run the quarter mile and the men's 800 guys are going to run the 800, so really it's the first time we open up their main event."

In the meantime, the team has done a great job of working hard, regardless of the distance, Latz said.

"There were a lot of people that ran different events than they usually do, but it was nice to see some of those kids come out and compete," he said. "It was good to see them have that determination and fire in their eyes, which they are going to need for the conference meet."

abrandt@lanthorn.com

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