(Allendale, MI) - Warm and windy weather in Allendale Michigan brought good fortune to the Cardinal Men and Women this past Saturday at the Grand Valley State University "Al Owens Classic". Both teams saw some great performances on the day, with several season bests, some all-time bests, and one school record.

Highlights
Brie Schofield (SO/Belleville, MI)—800m School Record—2:27.89
Jamie Schaub (JR/Brooklyn, MI)—28.80m Javelin 9th place out of 21
Bryant Hudson (FR/Flushing, MI)—22.79 200m 9th place out of 49
Max Monton (JR/Pentwater, MI)—50.21 400m 11th place out of 44
Jordan Foster (SR/Las Vegas, NV)—54.66m Javelin 4th place out of 32
Robert Duff—49.95m Javelin 6th place out of 32

The women's distance and mid distance squad had a great day with Brie Schofield breaking the 800m record, and Stephanie Johnston (FR/Brantford, ON) placing 10th in the 5000m run. Both girls are continuing to excel through the latter half of the season. Katherine Fowler (FR/Riga, MI) had her best 800m outdoor race of the year, with Courtney Dykema (FR/Birch Run, MI) joining her running close behind Schofield in the same heat. In the 1500m Sydney Bosley and Kelsey Riley (SO/Milford, MI) ran very well for their fastest 1500m of the year. Bosley, Riley, Dykema, and Schofield teamed up to run the 4x400m at the end of the day. They were all a little tuckered from great work earlier in the day, but were able to run a solid time regardless.

The women's throwers competed the day before in equally as good weather. Both Jamie Schaub and Madison Lutzke (SO/Benzie, MI) saw improvements in their events. Schaub had a great toss in the Javelin to make finals and ended up 9th overall for the best women's finish in the meet. Lutzke keeps chipping away at her best throw in the hammer. Her toss of 30.11m is inching closer to the school record of 30.40 set last year.

On the men's side there were several great performances on the track and in the field. The top finishers on the day were the two javelin throwers placing 4th and 6th overall. Jordan Foster crept a little closer to the national "B" standard of 56.08m with his 54.66m toss. He leads the conference in that event. Close behind him was teammate Robert Duff who threw 49.95m and is currently ranked 2nd in the conference. The Javelin throwers were not the only ones to see some success on the day. Christopher Deneen (SO/Hemlock, MI) and Josh Berry saw improvements in the Hammer Throw. Berry came back and threw a PR in the Discus and almost a PR in the Shot Put as well. In the Disc Connor Blanch (SO/Grandville, MI) cracked the 40m barrier with his final toss, and Adam Koch (JR/Fort Wayne, IN) joined him throwing 41.80m. Both men are close to making some noise in the Disc at the conference meet.

On the track the day started with the preliminaries in the 100m and 110m hurdle races. Bryant Hudson narrowly missed the finals in a tough field of high hurdlers. His time of 15.43 was good enough for 11th place overall. This marked his first time over the college height of 42". He later placed 9th in the 200m with a heat winning time of 22.79. Antwaan Burt (JR/Oak Park, MI) and Grant Bowdish (FR/Clio, MI) ran PR's in the 100 prelims. Bowdish then followed that up with his first time running the 400m hurdles where he turned in a solid time of 1:02.20. Max Monton ran his first 400m race of the outdoor season placing 11th overall with a time of 50.21. Jacob Bailey (FR/Garden City, MI) led the way for the mid distance men where he ran a PR in the 800m. His time of 2:02.74 was good enough for 39th out of the huge field of 90 runners. Ryan Bjellquist-Ledger (SR/Garwood, NJ), Joseph Brinton (FR/Portland, OR), Matt Monroe, and Brandon Binkowski (FR/Frazer, MI) also ran the 800m turning in solid times across the board. In the 1 500m Binkowski and Brinton ran PR's in a very deep field of over 100 athletes. Nate Heierman (FR/Clarkston, MI) led the way in the 5000m with his time of 16.59.63. He was followed by a trio of cardinals in Miguel Gonzales-Feliciano, Bjellquist-Ledger, and Monroe.

Through the two days the Cardinals stated to fine tune things as the conference meet gets closer. The coaching staff noted that the team as a whole improved in many ways over the weekend. They look forward to a week of training to prepare for the conference meet on the 2nd of May at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids.