OLIVET, Mich. - The Calvin men’s outdoor track and field team won its fourth consecutive Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championship at the Field Day held at Olivet's Kolassa Track on Friday.
Calvin posted a first place score of 232.5 points, finishing 72.5 points ahead of second-place Hope to take the crown. It marked the Knights’ 22nd MIAA title in the last 23 years as well as Calvin’s 28th championship in the last 30 years as part of a league-best total of 41 all-time.
Calvin took first place in four events but added depth throughout the day helped the Knights build on its early lead built on Thursday.
The Knights’ Ethan Valentine set MIAA and school records by winning the 400 meter run in a time of 47.32. The time places Valentine second on the current NCAA DIII Outdoor Track and Field performance list. It shattered the previous Calvin record of 47.46 and surpassed the league mark of 47.97 set by Tyler Bourdo of Trine in 2013.
Valentine placed second in the 200 meters but closed the meet with an exhilarating anchor leg in the men’s 4x400 meter relay. Calvin’s Marcus James, James Jeninga and Noah Buteyn set up Valentine’s dramatic final leg. Running nearly 20 meters behind relay teams from Trine and Hope, Valentine posted a split of 46.70 to nip the Hope anchor leg at the finish line
for the win in a time of 3:18.33.
Calvin sealed the team championship in the 5,000 meter run as the Knights took the top four spots led by Zach Nowicki who won the race with a time of 15:00.90. Sophomore Andrew Philipose placed second (15:17.86), Ethan Anderson third (15:38.32) and freshman Jamison Koeman fourth (15:41.51).
In the 1500 meters, Jeff Meitler took home a win in a time of 3:59.18 for Calvin.
Hope’s Boone Marois claimed league titles in two different events to help the Flying Dutch finish second in the overall standings at 160 points. He reclaimed the 200-meter MIAA title he earned as a freshman with a winning run of 22.02 seconds.
Marois anchored the 4x100 relay that took first. The team of Dion Goliday, Justin Freeman, Matt Pelyhes and Marois posted an MIAA record time of 41.49.
Nicholas Salomon became the sixth Flying Dutchmen runner to earn the 800-meter championship by clocking a winning time of 1:56.03.
Trine’s Sam Gilly accounted for the Thunder’s lone first-place performance as he won the hammer throw. The senior unleashed a toss of 172 feet, 2 inches in the event. He added a second-place finish in the discus throw today to follow up his fourth-place performance in the shot put Thursday.
Adrian took home four first-place finishes on the final day Scott Campbell won the high jump for the third year in a row by clearing 2.02 meters. In the discus, Jordan Simon earned the MIAA championship in the discus with a throw of 47.07 meters.
The Bulldogs’ Jordan Davis took home two crowns by winning both the 110 meter hurdles (15.16) and the 400 meter hurdles (55.04).
Albion took home two titles as Justin Meredith won the 100-meter dash in a time of 10.76 seconds and Mitchell Clinton claimed the steeplechase crown in 9:33.20.
Alma’s Austin Rodriguez followed up his long jump title on Thursday with a triple jump crown on Friday with a winning leap of 13.63 meters.
After the opening day of competition on Thursday, Calvin totaled 74.5 points to lead after five events complete, with Trine second at 36.5 points and Hope third with 33. On the women's side the Knights accumulated 87.5 points, ahead of Hope in second at 50.5 points, through six events scored to lead the field.
The Calvin men crowned three individual event champions on Thursday as senior David Dadzie won the javelin (172-0), senior Eric Jipping took first place in the shot put (48-4) and senior Lucas Wolters won the pole vault (15-8 1/4). Wolters and Jipping both repeated as MIAA champions in their respective events.
Wolters was also part of a 1-2-5 Calvin finish in the pole vault as sophomore Jacob Stout was second with a career-best vault of 15-1 while senior Collin Martin was fifth (12-11 1/2). Dadzie was one of two Calvin athletes to score in the men's javelin as junior Erick Holder was eighth (139-11). The Knights also scored three times each in both the long jump and 10,000 meter run.
Hope's Julian Morrison became Hope College's fourth different MIAA champion in the 10,000 meter run by clocking a time of 32:15.85. Teammate Ben Zank placed third at 32:41.77.
Alma's Austin Rodriguez rounded out the event champions from Thursday after leaping a distance of 22-10.75 to claim the long jump title.
Men – Final Team Rankings
1) Calvin - 232.5
2) Hope - 160
3) Trine - 140.5
4) Adrian - 93
5) Albion - 75
6) Alma - 48
7) Olivet - 26