GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – For the ninth consecutive season, the Trine University men's track & field team has won the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Championship. It is the program's fourth outdoor crown in a row to go with five straight indoor MIAA titles. Hope College made things interesting, but once the dust settled on the 20 events, Trine tallied 185 points to Hope's 178.
Jake Gladieux brought home two event wins for the team – both coming in the hurdle events. Gladieux (14.23 seconds) led a trifecta of Thunder student-athletes in the 110-meter hurdles in second-place Greysen Spohn (14.88 seconds) and third-place Zion Jackson (14.92 seconds). Joshua Slimak also scored two points with his seventh-place finish (15.93 seconds). Gladieux ran a time of 52.10 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles for the team's second individual victory.
Trine had three scoring members in both the high jump and 5000-meter run. Spohn was runner-up in the high jump at 1.94 meters (6' 4.25") while Ethan Spahr was fourth at 1.85 meters (6' 0.75") and Hunter Eifert sixth at 1.80 meters (5' 10.75"). Joseph Packard was the distance leader once again in the 5000-meetr run at 15:13.45, good for fourth overall. Max Van Huis was just behind in fifth (15:21.06) and Ryan Hoopingarner eighth (15:34.09).
In the triple jump, Jackson placed second overall with a leap of 13.76 meters (45' 1.75") while Spahr was fourth at 13.20 meters (43' 3.75"). A third-place finish was credited to Philip Nemechek in the 800-meter run (1:56.37) and Tyler Hartleroad was seventh in the same event (2:05.42). Hartleroad was also the lone scorer for the Thunder in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:01.26, good for third.
Both relay teams for Trine found themselves third on the podium. The 4x100-meter relay team of Maxwell Harris, Spohn, Jayjouir Roberts and Gladieux ran a time of 41.83 seconds while Gladieux, Nemechek, Ryan Smith and Hartleroad completed the 4x400-meter relay in 3:18.86. In the final two track events, Spohn was fourth in the 100-meter dash (10.81 seconds) and sixth in the 200-meter dash (22.22 seconds).
The two remaining field events featured Trine scoring members in fifth and seventh. In the javelin, Spahr was fifth at 43.51 meters (142' 9.00") and Colton Wampler seventh at 42.03 meters (137' 10.00"). The discus featured Colten Zableckis in fifth (40.13 meters / 131' 8.00") and Kimball Hughes in seventh (39.18 meters / 128' 6.00").
The Thunder will be in action in several last chance meets leading up to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina from May 25-27.
