FERRIS STATE TRACK & FIELD ATHLETES TO COMPETE IN NATIONAL MEET

Six Bulldog Squad Members Headed To NCAA-II Championships

Ferris senior Leanna Wolf will be one of six FSU competitors taking part in the national indoor championships

The group includes seniors Jenny Irwin (Scottville/Mason County Central) and Leanna Wolf (Fountain/Mason County Central) along with sophomores Chandra Robinson (Warren/Mott), Kamitra Carroll (Flint/Carman-Ainsworth), Joe Mielke (Westland/Franklin) and freshman Mikinzie Stuart (Saginaw/Nouvel). The final meet participants were announced recently (March 1) by the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee.

A total of 400 student-athletes qualified for the meet by reaching the automatic or provisional standards established for each event. Stonehill College and the Reggie Lewis Center at Roxbury Community College will serve as hosts of the championships. The top eight finishers in each event will earn All-America recognition.

"Overall, we've got a great group of student-athletes heading to the national meet and we're excited about the opportunity," said FSU head coach Jeff Kavalunas. "This year, we have several high performance marks entering the meet and should be in good position to score a number of points."

Irwin, Stuart, Wolf and Robinson will all compete on the school's women's distance medley relay, which holds the nation's fastest qualifying time of 11:41.83 entering the national meet. The contingent, which set a new conference meet record in winning the event at last week's (Feb. 24-25) Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Indoor Championships at Findlay, Ohio, will take part in Friday's (March 10) 8:05 p.m. (EST) running of the event. Eleven teams will compete in the race.

Irwin also qualified individually in the mile run and posesses the second-fastest (4:48.80) entry time of the 14 individuals selected to compete in the event. The mile run preliminary round is Friday at 5:15 p.m. (EST) with the finals set for Saturday (March 11) starting at 3:10 p.m. (EST). Irwin won the 3,000 meters (9:59.86) in a meet-record time and earned runner-up honors in the mile run (4:49.40) while leading the women's squad at last weekend's league championships.

Wolf, too, qualified individually and holds the ninth-fastest time (2:13.31) of 16 competitors selected to take part in the 800 meters. The preliminary qualifying round of the women’s 800 meters will be held Friday at 6:40 p.m. (EST) with the event finals set for a 4:04 p.m. (EST) start on Saturday. Wolf received third-place honors in the 800 meters (2:13.61) at this year's conference meet.

The Bulldogs will be represented in the shot put by Carroll, who's seed mark (48-4) is second overall of 15 throwers. The women's shot put will be held Friday at 1 p.m. (EST). Carroll claimed the GLIAC shot put title with a first-place toss of 47-6.25 in the conference championships.

"Our distance medley relay really ran well at the conference meet," Kavalunas said. "Jenny is in a position to contend for an individual title in the mile run while Leanna has really progressed over the last couple of years and should be competitive in the 800 meters.

"Kamitra also had a great conference meet and has been more consistent this year, which should give her a lot of confidence entering the national meet."

Mielke, who's FSU's lone men's participant in the national meet, will compete in the high jump and enters the national meet with the seventh-best (6-11.50) mark of 15 individuals selected to compete in the event. His event is slated to begin Saturday at 1:15 p.m. (EST). Mielke earned runner-up accolades in the high jump (6-10.25) while pacing the men's squad at the league meet.

Mielke will be the first male to represent Ferris State at the national meet since the program was reinstated in 1999. Former Bulldog competitor Chad Smith was the last member of the men's program to attain All-America recognition when he took third place in the decathlon at the 1993 NCAA-II Outdoor Championships.

"Joe's been extremely consistent in the high jump this year and it will be neat for him to be the first member of the men's team to represent our university at the national meet in quite some time," said Kavalunas.

The Bulldog women's indoor track and field team finished fifth with 59.5 points at last weekend's GLIAC Indoor Championships. The men's squad took eighth place with 28 points.

The Ferris State women have had eight individual All-America indoor performances in school history along with two top-eight showings in relay events heading into this season's national meet. The school's most recent indoor All-America individual showings came in 2002 when former student-athletes Katie Chapman (800 meters), Morgan Buckner (60-meter hurdles) and Tianna Kirkland (shot put) all placed among the top eight individuals. Robinson, Wolf and Irwin joined former Bulldog runner Geneva Jones to pick up indoor All-America accolades last campaign with a eighth-place performance (11:56.52) in the distance medley relay at the national meet (3/11-12/05) held inside the Reggie Lewis Center.