Official Championship Page
Men's Records (PDF)
Women's Records (PDF)
Meet Program (PDF)
Heat Sheets (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – The numbers from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference indoor track and field season are just flat-out impressive.
A dozen conference championship records broken on the men’s side. Eleven more shattered by the women. Eleven total NCAA Division II All-American honors were recognized on the awards podium in Alabama.
And there’s no reason to expect more of the same beginning on Saturday at the G-MAC Championships being conducted once again at Cedarville University.
Events start Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. EST with multiple field events and track events are slated to start at 4 p.m. including preliminaries of select hurdles and longer distances like the 3K steeplechase and 10K race. Saturday’s projected start time is 11:50 a.m. EST all the way through 3:05 p.m. with the awards ceremony to follow.
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For the entire regular season, both track and field records were falling week by week with regularity. The ante has been upped across the board in terms of level of competition and the impressive athletic abilities being showcased by Great Midwest student-athletes.
Cedarville’s men has reigned supreme with three consecutive men’s titles while the Yellow Jackets’ women has earned back-to-back outdoor titles in 2015 and 2016 after Ursuline won the initial 2014 conference championship offering.
But the weather is looking somewhat gloomy and could play a factor for the two-day event. A high of 75 degrees is something to look forward to, but thunderstorms forecasted in the immediate area for most of Saturday could throw a wrench into teams’ plans.
Coaches will determine several awards at the completion of the meet, including track, field and the freshman athlete of the year. The coach of the year will also be voted upon by their peers.
Men
A trio of men have provisionally qualified for outdoor nationals in two events each and have been outstanding all spring.
Cedarville’s Daniel Michalski blazed to new outdoor records and provisional times in the 3K steeplechase and the 1,500-meter run this season. Running in his home confines, the junior from nearby Xenia is definitely someone to monitor; he is entered in both events and the 5K.
Malone’s lethal combination of indoor track and field athletes of the year that helped the Pioneers to the men’s indoor team title are back and better than ever. Senior Duke Taylor will do his damage once again in throws and he currently ranks fifth in all of DII in the discus throw.
Sophomore speedster Ashton Dulin has incrementally improved his status in the 110 and 400-meter hurdles throughout the spring. He ranks ninth among all DII qualifiers in the 400-meter hurdles and holds a top-25 ranking in the 110-meter hurdles. Both conference records are in his possession.
Kentucky Wesleyan’s James Glenn and Dallan Goldring were the 2016 G-MAC Track Athlete and Freshman of the Year and Cedarville’s Jonathan Scouten was the G-MAC Field Athlete of the Year in a rain-soaked meet last year.
Women
Cedarville wunderkind Carsyn Koch seems to do something more different and more notable each week. The junior from Maine was unable to compete at the indoor meet due to injury but is projected to compete in three events over the weekend.
She is aiming to defend her national title in the 800. At this year’s conference meet, she is slated to enter the 400, 800 and 1,500-meter distances.
Yellow Jackets senior Olivia Esbenshade stole the show at the indoor meet as track athlete of the year and will have a similar impact with contributions to the scoring. Cedarville senior Nicole Perez has broken the 3K steeplechase conference record several times and the Yellow Jackets’ relays units have plenty of depth depending on the lineup deployed by the coaching staff.
Ursuline’s underclassmen trio of Tea Fletcher, Nicole Yeargin and Janelle Perry, are prepared to rack up team points in bunches in a variety of events.
Perry is a provisional qualifier in the heptathlon while Yeargin has broken the 200-meter barrier several times this spring. Fletcher may have the inside track on the short sprints against the field.
Malone has a trio of ladies as provisional qualifiers including 10K record holder Hannah Thompson in the 10K. Jade Smith has also qualified in the same event while Erika Rector has established herself among the league’s best in a crowded 800-meter pack.
The throwing records will be under duress all weekend between the combination of Kentucky Wesleyan’s Cornelia Thomas, Crystal Hopkins, Malone’s Che Tanner, and others.