The Bowling Green track team will travel to Toledo on Friday to compete in the Battle of I-75, their only dual meet of the season against the Rockets.
This will be the third year in a row that the rivals come together for the meet, with the Falcons having won the past two years.
The Falcons will go into the meet off of a strong season opener last weekend. After week one, the team currently has 24 marks in various events ranked top 20 in the Mid-American Conference. Of those 24, 13 of them are ranked in the top 10.
Two of those marks belong to senior Brittany Sinclair, who is currently ranked first in the MAC in both the 400 and 400 hurdles. In the hurdles, her mark last weekend made her the sixth fastest woman in program history for the event.
Sinclair’s time of 56.21 seconds in the 400 is just under a full second faster than her closest competitor. Even with her marks and the rest of the team, Sinclair says there is still more they want to accomplish at this point in the season.
“We want to have about 25 in the top 20 for competition and 15 automatic qualifying marks, so we still have to progress as a team but it’s a good start,” Sinclair said.
The only automatic qualifying mark so far for the Falcons also belongs to Sinclair, who has met the condition for the hurdles.
The next two highest rankings going into the dual meet belong to redshirt sophomore Mackenzie McMillin and junior Alicia Arnold.
Arnold is ranked second in the 100 with a mark of 12.05 seconds and McMillin is ranked second in the 10,000 with a mark of 36 minutes and 14.29 seconds.
“I really just want to get as far as I can, that’s the goal,” Arnold said of her final rankings. “I don’t really have a number [I want]. I just want to give me all because I only have one year left.”
Going into the Battle of I-75, the majority of the meets the team compete in are not scored. Usually, the meets are for rankings and qualifying marks until the MAC championships. This meet is different. Each competitor can score points depending on what place they come in, in addition to pushing for those marks.
“It’s definitely more motivation. We always want to beat the team up north,” Sinclair said. “Toledo is always a big rivalry, I think that’s for every sport here. It’s always something to look forward to.”
