The BG track and field team will travel to the University of Michigan Saturday to participate in the Red Simmons/Jack Harvey Invitational. Field events are scheduled to begin at the U-M Indoor Track Building at 10:30 a.m. and running events will begin at 12:30 p.m. the times are still subject to change.
After last Saturday’s home opener, the Falcons have had a week of training to switch their focus and prepare for this weekend’s meet. Abby Koch who had a disappointing 3000-meter run last weekend will not be able to put that meet behind her just yet as the distance runners will not be running this meet.
“We all have ups and downs you just have to move on and focus on the next meet,” Head Coach Lou Snelling said. “She (Abby) will not be running this weekend; I prefer not to run the distance runners back to back weekends because of the length of their event.”
This meet will be relative in size to the last two meets the Falcons have run. Besides the University of Michigan, the other teams competing are Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Detroit University. Although at this meet the team scores will not be recorded the Falcons will still compete at their best.
“We just want to keep building on the progress we have made so far,” said Snelling. “If we continue to improve every week we will be where we want to be when February comes around.”
The latest top 20 Mid-American Conference track and field rankings for each event were released. In that list you can find 12 different Falcon athletes, Dana Gates as a repeat in the long jump and triple jump, and the 4 X 400 relay team.
With the change MAC Championship system, in order for the girls to qualify for the championships they must place in the top 20 in their respective events when the end of the year comes around.
“It is hard to tell how many girls can qualify due to the new system,” said Snelling. “But, we have crunched the numbers from last year and we know what we need this year to get where we want to be.”
Standout Brooke Pleger is not only ranked second in the MAC in the weight throw but she is also ranked 27th in the country in it as well. With only two meets in the books Brooke and the entire track and field team looks to keep improving as the season goes on.
“It is awesome to have that level of success from Brooke,” said Snelling. “But, we have a pretty group in all areas putting good performances together this year.”
