FERRIS TO HOST ANNUAL BULLDOG INVITATIONAL THIS SATURDAY

Annual Event To Serve As School's Only Home Meet This Season

Ferris athletes Sean Maxwell, left, and Darryl Glashauser, right, compete in last season's Bulldog Invitational

The event, which serves as the school's only home meet of the season, kicks off at 12 p.m. (EDT) with the field event competition. Running events will get underway at 12:30 p.m. (EDT) with the women's 5,000 meter run participants slated to hit the track first. The 1,600-meter relay, which is the day's final event, is tentatively set to start at 4:10 p.m. (EDT). A rolling time schedule will be used for the field events while all running events are timed finals. The meet is open to the public.

In addition to Ferris State, the non-scoring invitational field will include a variety of student-athletes from both local schools and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC)-member institutions including Aquinas, Northwood, Grand Valley State, Lake Superior State and Michigan Tech.

This season will mark the fifth-straight year the Bulldogs have hosted the home invitational. The meet was held annually each season prior to 1987. Ferris then reinstated the annual event by hosting their first home track meet in 12 seasons on April 10, 1999. The meet has been held each season since then with the exception of the 2000 outdoor campaign when the event was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Top Taggart Field serves as the site for the Bulldogs' home track and field meets. The stadium, which also serves as home to FSU’s varsity football program, was dedicated October 1957 in honor of the school’s first official varsity football coach and his contributions to the institution.

The facility underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in the spring of 1998, which involved the installation of a 400-meter, eight-lane track with a brick red urethane surface surrounding a top-of-the-line artificial turf playing surface. Also, renovations were completed at that time for two shot put circles, two long and triple jump pits, and a pair of pole vault boxes. The facility also includes the three-story Wheeler Pavilion, which was added in 2001.

In addition to Top Taggart Field, throwing events will also be held just south of the stadium on university practice fields.

The Bulldog men's and women's teams opened the outdoor season last Saturday (April 2) by taking part in the second annual Saint Joseph's (Ind.) Gene and Rose Edmonds Invitational in Rensselaer, Ind. The Ferris women's team placed second in the five-team field while the men's squad was fourth under ninth-year head coach Jeff Kavalunas.