CSR (NCAA III Track and Field Championships Reports For Day One)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2006

MENS AND WOMENS TRACK AND FIELD
NCAA DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIPS * DAY ONE (Written by Jeff Febus '92 and
Annalise VenHuizen '08)

LISLE, IL*After the first day of NCAA Championship competition, which
included finals for the pole vault, discus, long jump, and 10,000 meter run and
included half of the preliminary races for the meet, the Calvin women are tied
for seventh place in team standings with eight points.

Calvin gained points from All-American performances by senior Missy Smith
(Ada/Grand Rapids Christian) and junior Lisa Winkle (Grand Rapids/South
Christian) in the pole vault and long jump, respectively.

Smith's vault of 12-2½ was good for third place, her highest placement at
Nationals as she finished fourth in 2004 and fifth at the 2005 meet. Though
four other competitors matched Smith's vault, Smith captured third place as
she made every height on the first attempt. Smith knew by experience that
misses would factor into the standings in a big way: "Last year it took me
three attempts to make the winning height, which placed me fifth instead of
first. Consistency is what nationals is all about." A senior, Smith ended
her career on a good note. "I'm going to miss vaulting, but I'm glad I
finished like this. It's a good way to end," said Smith.

Though she had to give up her third jump in the long jump finals to run the
anchor leg in the trials of the 4x100 meter relay, Winkle gained her first
individual All-American Award as her jump of 18-5¾ was good for seventh place.
 Both relays of which Winkle is a member also qualified for the Saturday
finals. Commenting on her busy day of a competition, Winkle said, "I thought
it was a good day considering all of my events, and the team effort was
outstanding. Things got a little stressful when long jump and the 4x100 were
at the same time, but it all worked out. I'm very excited and looking forward
to the next two days."

Also competing in field event finals was junior Megann VanderVliet (Oakville,
ON/Oakville Trafalger High) in the discus. Though her best throw came in at
129-4, VanderVliet fouled her other two throws and did not advance to finals.
VanderVliet will get a second chance on Saturday when she will compete in her
strongest event, the shot put.

Sophomore Christina Overbeck (Seattle, WA/Bellevue Christian) competed in the
finals of the 10,000 meter run this evening and finished thirteenth with a time
of 37:40.13, surpassing her seed of fifteenth.

In the prelims, sophomore Sarah Wittingen (East Grand Rapids/East Grand Rapids
High) advanced to the 400 meter hurdle finals with a time of 1:01.32, the fifth
best preliminary time.

Along with Winkle, Wittingen was part of Calvin's 4x100 and 4x400 meter
relay teams that advanced out of the prelims. Joining Wittingen and Winkle on
the 4x100 were junior Lisa Geelhoed (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian) and
senior Lorilyn Vogel (Orange City, IA/Unity Christian); the team had a
finishing time of 47.89 which just cleared them for a 9th place seed in the
finals.

In addition to Winkle and Wittingen, the 4x400 meter relay team also included
freshmen Lauren Bergstrom (Rochester, MN/Century High) and Jennifer DeFauw
(Grosse Pointe/Grosse Pointe North), who helped Calvin to gain the top time
going into finals, 3:45.33.

In the heptathlon, a Calvin-Hope showdown is brewing through day one as Hope
sophomore Lindsay Lange sits in first place with 3,063 points while Calvin
senior Christine Hendricks (Cincinnati, OH) is in second with 3, 006 points,
more than 100 points ahead of Christina Aquaviva of Cortland State who rests in
third.

Hendricks and Lange had the top two times in the 100 hurdles of the heptathlon
with Lange coming in at 14.53 and Hendricks with a career-best time of 14.56.
In the high jump, Hendricks matched her career-best with a jump of 5-3 while
Lange cleared the bar at 5-1 3/4 . Lange then came up with a career-best throw
of 36-7 ½ in the shot put while Hendricks had a toss of 37-11 ¼. Lange then
took over the lead with a sizzling time of 25.39 in the 200 meters while
Hendricks had a time of 26.70. The heptathlon will conclude on Friday with the
long jump, javelin and 1,500 meters. Hendricks and Lange will also both compete
in the prelims of the 100 meter (open) hurdles.

On the men's side, Calvin had a disappointing day as the Knights picked up
just one All-America berth and failed to advance any one out of the prelims
into finals events. In the discus, senior Nate Meckes (Bay City/Lutheran
Westland HS) failed to advance out of the prelims after entering the meet
seeded fourth. Meckes struggled with a slippery throwing ring that had been
drenched by a steady afternoon rain. Meckes fouled on his and third attempts
and squeezed in a throw of 161-8 that was good for only 10th place in the final
standings.

Younger brother Josh Meckes (Bay City/Saginaw Valley Lutheran HS) was unable
to shake off an injury suffered a week prior in the long jump in a last-chance
meet at North Central College. Meckes was able to pop off three jumps but none
farther than 22 feet * well short of his season-best of 24-1 ¼ that had him
seeded third in the event at the national meet.

Calvin's 4x400 meter relay team of junior Todd Schuster (Denver, CO),
sophomore Jared Cok (Bozeman, MT), senior Chris Friebel (Fairborn, OH) and
sophomore Joel Baker (Kalamazoo Christian HS) also had a season-best time of
3:13.30 but did not advance to Saturday's finals.

Calvin's lone bright spot came from junior Tim Finnegan (Los Alamos, NM) as
he collected All-America honors in the 10,000 meters with a sixth place time of
30:55.31. The All-America berth was the third of Finnegan's track and field
career and his second in the 10,000 meters. Senior teammate Harrison Jorritsma
(Beamsville, ON) was 11th in 31:26.95 while freshman Jed Christiansen
(Greenville, PA) was 16th in 33:25.59.

Also a three-time All-American in cross country, Finnegan has now earned six
All-America berths in distance career at Calvin.

"Tim is creeping up on some of the best we've ever had at Calvin in terms
of All-America awards," said Calvin distance coach Al Hoekstra. "He ran a
very valiant race tonight and gave it everything he had."

Scheduled to compete for the Calvin men on Friday is freshman Michael Buist
(Calvin Christian HS) in the high jump.

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Thu May 25 22:59:29 2006