CALVIN SPORTS REPORT (PART TWO) FOR MAY 26, 2006
BUIST GARNERS ALL-AMERICA HONORS IN HIGH JUMP AT NCAAs
LISLE, IL -- A highlight in the men's competition today was a personal best jump by freshman Michael Buist (Grand Rapids/Calvin Christian) in the high jump that landed him All-America honors. Buist, who was seeded tenth in the event, came up with a 6-9 jump that tied him for fourth place.
"It was nice to come to nationals as a freshman and pull out an All-American performance today," said Buist. "It's a great feeling to have a personal best performance at the national meet."
Calvin head track and field coach Dr. Jong-il Kim was thrilled with the performance. "Michael was great today," he said. "I could see that he had great potential at the start of the season but potential does not always equate into results. Michael made things happen this year through hard work and listening to instruction. I feel that he can get even better over the next three years if he continues to work hard."
Buist is the first freshman in Calvin men's Track and Field history to become an All-American in a field event. His jump was also just an inch-and-a-half off the Calvin record of 6-10 ½ set by Dan Owen in 1989.
Buist also helped build Calvin's point total to 7.5 points which puts Calvin in 17th place in the team standings heading into Saturday.
On the women's side, Calvin sits in third place with a total of 18 points, trailing Wisconsin-Oshkosh (28 points) and Williams of Massachusetts (21 points).
One individual that did not gain All-America honors for Calvin on Friday but still came up with a strong performance was junior Lydia Singer. In her second straight trip to the NCAA Div. III meet, Singer (Wilmington, DE/Hillcrest Academy, Nigeria) took 12th place with a time of 11:09.15. Singer's placement was an improvement of two places over last year, when she finished fourteenth at the national meet.
"I thought Lydia ran an outstanding race," said Calvin distance coach Brian Diemer. "She was not far away from an All-American (top-eight) finish. Tonight was a huge improvement over her performance from last year. She was very smooth tonight and ran a smart race. She continues to improve and I think she has a legitimate shot of finishing in the top eight next year."
Scheduled to compete for Calvin on Saturday on the men's side are senior Nate Meckes (top seed) in the shot put and junior Tim Finnegan and freshman Jed Christiansen in the 5,000 meters.
On the women's side, scheduled to compete for Calvin are: sophomore Sarah Wittingen in the 400 meter hurdles; junior Lisa Winkle in the 400 meters, senior Camille Medema in the 800 meters and junior Megann VanderVliet in the shot put. Calvin's 4x400 meter relay team of Winkle, Wittingen, Katie Bolt and Lauren Bergstrom is also the top seed while Calvin's 4x100 meter relay team of Lisa Geelhoed, Winkle, Wittingen and junior Lorilyn Vogel is the ninth seed.
Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Fri May 26 20:46:02 2006
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