This upcoming Saturday, the University of Chicago track and field team will be traveling to Grand Valley State University to compete in the Grand Valley State Lints Alumni Meet. The women are looking to keep up their momentum after sweeping the competition at the I-55 Triangular, hosted at Illinois Wesleyan’s Shirk Center. The Maroon men took home four event wins. The Maroons are looking to improve even more this upcoming weekend.
Grand Valley State is a Division II school, which will allow the Maroons to compete at a very high level. Third-year Emma Griffiths is looking forward to the weekend, saying, “I’m so excited to see how the team performs this weekend. We’ve never competed at Grand Valley State before, and it’s going to bring a lot of strong competition…. It will be an awesome opportunity to see people really step up and hit times, heights, and distances that they haven’t reached yet this season. People are starting to settle into their events and I think a lot of things will come together at Grand Valley.”
With strong competition ahead, the Maroon men are going to rely heavily on third-year Owen Melia, first-year Ryan Cutter, and fourth-year Patrick LeFevre. Melia won last weekend in the 800-meter, Cutter in the 3,000-meter, and LeFevre in the 60-meter hurdles. The men are looking to improve their times even more.
The Maroon women are looking to continue their dominance this weekend and are continuing to train very hard during the week. They are staying focused and looking to get better each meet. The Maroon women are not looking to settle into their No. 11 national ranking, but want to improve to move up in rank. Third-year Tali Naibyrf says, “We are entering the fourth phase of our training cycle right now, so based on last weekend’s performances we are excited to see what this weekend’s meet with hold. We will be choosing captains this week as well.”
The Maroon women are looking to second-year Alisha Harris to step up and lead the team in the events she will be competing in. Harris swept the meet last weekend, dominating in both the 60- (7.91 seconds) and 200-meter (26.60) races. Additionally, second-year Robin Peter is looking to grab her third event win this weekend. Peter has won two straight weekends in a row in the 60-meter hurdle event, finishing in an impressive 9.16.
The Maroons are working hard this week to compete against tough competition at the Grand Valley State Lints Alumni Meet. The meet will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 27.
