Great Midwest Indoor Track & Field Championships Preview

2.27.20

Official Championship Page (Men)

Official Championship Page (Women)



Live Video (10 AM ET)

Live Results (Tiffin Timing)

 
TIFFIN, Ohio – Meet records are in jeopardy this weekend as talented student-athletes get ready to compete at the 2020 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Tiffin.
 
Starting on Friday in the Heminger Center, school records, personal PR’s, auto and provisional qualifying marks and conference meet bests, are on the line for 12 men’s programs and 13 women’s programs.
 
Tiffin will be providing a live stream of the conference meet on the Great Midwest Digital Network with live results also available through the Dragons’ timing company.
 
In addition to the top three placewinners recognized at the podium, individual awards will be presented to the top freshman, track and field athletes of the meet, at the end.
 
Tiffin is the defending men’s and women’s team champions and the Dragons, coached by Jeremy Croy, are absolutely loaded to make another run this year. Tiffin is currently ranked third in the men’s USTFCCCA national rankings and the women are 13th.
 
Defending NCAA Champion Jonte Baker holds the title of the ‘fastest man in Division II’ and is poised to blow away last year’s meet record. Baker and four of his teammates recently went to Albuquerque, N.M. to race at the pinnacle of the nation’s best in the USATF Indoor Nationals.
 
Junior thrower Nikolas Curtiss is tops in the country in the shot put and Tiffin’s contingent of talented throwers with Jabari Bennett, Eric Jackson and Isaiah Allen, give the Dragons the deepest throwing core in DII. Both Curtiss and Bennett are auto qualifiers in shot put.
 
Senior multis star Cameron Burrows, also from Tiffin, is seeded in a tie for first nationally in the high jump this year and his heptathlon point total at the Boo Rogers Combined Events meet was an auto qualifying mark.
 
Findlay sophomore Xavier Marable also ran at the USATF Indoor Nationals and staked claim to the 400-meter run conference record earlier this year. The sophomore is just one of four in Division II to have broken the auto qualifying time in that event this year.
 
The jumps pit also includes Tiffin long jump auto qualifier Quincy Scott and Findlay’s Martin Etsey, tied for fourth in the updated performance list for the triple jump.
 
The talented women’s field has one returning national champion, Tiffin sophomore Marisa Gwinner in the high jump. Gwinner just matched her own conference record is tied for first in DII this year.
 
The distance events, both individual and relays, have traditionally featured outstanding times in conference meet history. Walsh senior Andra Lehotay shines in the 800, mile, DMR and was a back-to-back selection for conference track athlete of the week this year.
 
Findlay freshman Simone Green opened eyes with a 5.77m distance in the long jump and another Oiler rookie, Lindsey Kluesener, cracked an auto qualifying height in pole vault a week ago.
 
Tiffin’s national ranking has been boosted by the emergence of the sprints standouts, including Rajiah Andrews, Keyonna McGill and Tatiyana Cooper-Laylor. All three have registered top 10 conference times in the 60-meter dash this season. Throwers Nicole Berry or Brenda Johnson are also prime candidates to break the meet record in the shot put.
 
Malone’s reigning Cross Country Runner of the Year Mackenna Curtis-Collins clocked a top 5 time in the conference record books in the 3K. Hillsdale’s 4x400 meter relay grouping is also coming off a new conference record set at the Doug Raymond National Qualifier.
 
The conference had 17 men’s NCAA qualifiers and 19 more from the women’s side in 2019-20 and could see another spike in those numbers headed to nationals based on the current DII TFRRS Performance List.
 
A photo gallery link from both days of competition will also be made public at the end of the meet.