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(Baux) Truckey-ing along: Marquette Senior High School graduate Baux Truckey named Freshman Track Athlete of the Meet at GLIAC Championship women’s outdoor track & field meet

The Northern Michigan University women’s track team poses for this photo while attending the GLIAC Championships in outdoor track and field held at Grand Valley State University in downstate Allendale from Wednesday through Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

ALLENDALE — Marquette Senior High School graduate Baux Truckey earned a special honor as Northern Michigan University finished in fourth place among 10 teams at the GLIAC Championships in women’s track and field held at Grand Valley State from Wednesday through Friday.

Truckey was named Freshman Track Athlete of the Meet with two top-five finishes in sprints at the meet as the Wildcats scored 90 points.

On Thursday, she and teammate Jahtivya Williams ran well enough in the preliminaries of the 100- and 200-meter dashes to advance to the finals. Truckey was third in each of those events, clocking 11.96 seconds in the 100 and 24.43 in the 200, while Williams turned in times of 12.11 in the 100 and 24.85 in the 200.

Then in those events’ finals on Friday, Truckey finished fourth in the 100 in 12.07 seconds with Williams sixth in 12.29. In the 200, Truckey placed fifth in 25.06 seconds with Williams eighth in 25.30.

Julia Tuuri of Davenport won the 100 in 11.98 while Hanne Bastiaansen of Wayne State took the 200 in 24.03.

Northern Michigan University freshmen heptathlon athletes Eva Zonca, left, and Natasha Nowakowski stand together around the time their event was held at the GLIAC Championships at Grand Valley State earlier this week. (Photo courtesy NMU)

In addition, Truckey also ran with the 4-by-100 sprint relay on Friday as she and Williams, Ellyse Wolfrath and Ahna Larson finished fourth in 47.38 seconds.

A select group of NMU athletes will head to the Last Chance Meet in Naperville, Illinois, next weekend in hopes of securing NCAA provisional standards and punching their tickets to the NCAA Championships being held May 23-25 in Emporia, Kansas.

At the GLIAC meet, Grand Valley swept both women’s and men’s titles. For the women, the Lakers scored 245 1/2 points, nearly 100 ahead of runner-up Saginaw Valley State’s 147 as Wayne State was third with 119 1/2. Following NMU’s 90 points, Wisconsin-Parkside finished fifth with 69 and Davenport sixth with 68. Then came Ferris State with 22 1/2, Purdue Northwest 21, Michigan Tech 16 1a/2 and Lake Superior State 14.

GVSU had an even heftier win in the men’s meet, scoring 319 to second-place SVSU’s 151. MTU tied for sixth in the eight-team meet with 35 while LSSU was eighth with 4.

Four Wildcats made the podium with top-three finishes during the women’s meet — Crystal Walker was second in the 100 hurdles and third in the long jump, Teiolla Harvey was third in the javelin, Wolfrath was third in the 100 hurdles and Emily Czeiszperger was third in the pole vault for her first career podium finish.

Baux Truckey

On Wednesday, a limited schedule centered around the seven-event heptathlon with four events completed. NMU freshman Eva Zonca was eighth and fellow frosh Natasha Nowakowski ninth at that point.

In the 100 hurdles, Zonca was eighth in 16.41 seconds and Nowakowski 10th in 17.49. In the long jump, Nowakowski was fifth in 1.49 meters (4 feet, 10 5/8 inches) while Zonca was ninth with 1.40 meters (4-7 1/8), while in the shot put, Nowakowski was fourth with 9.53 meters (31-3 1/4) and Zonca seventh with 8.21 meters (26-11 1/4).

And in the 200, Zonca was eighth in 28.11 seconds and Nowakowski 10th in 28.98.

By the time the event ended Thursday, Nowakowski finished seventh with 3,667 points and Zonca was next in eighth with 3,475. Nowakowski was top five in four events, topping out with a runner-up finish in the javelin with a toss of 30.24 meters (99-2 1/2), while Zonca was best in the 800 in 2:45.71 to place fourth.

Also Thursday, Harvey broke her personal record in the javelin with 38.07 meters (124-10 7/8), while Nowakowski was seventh with 33.67 meters (110-5 5/8).

Northern Michigan University women’s track team member stands on the podium after winning a medal for a top-three finish at the GLIAC Championships women’s track and field meet held at Grand Valley State earlier this week. (Photo courtesy NMU)

Walker’s long jump of 5.89 meters (19-3 7/8) placed her third and was the second-best she’s ever had, while teammate Sofi Diop was fifth with 5.45 meters (17-10 1/2).

And Alizabeth Little set a personal record in the hammer throw with a toss of 39.22 meters (128-8 1/8) to place eighth.

On Friday, Walker was runner-up in the 100 hurdles in 13.84 seconds, with Wolfrath right behind in third in 13.89. Both are NCAA national meet provisional marks and also among the top 15 times posted nationwide.

Czeiszperger was third in the pole vault, clearing 3.47 meters (11-4 5/8), while Skylar Grubb ran the 10,000 in 37:06.46 to finish sixth.

In the 1,500, Gianna Hoving was fourth in 4:35.05 and Madi Szymanski seventh in 4:38.20, while Szymanski was also fourth in the 5,000 in 17:16.55.

Leah Root placed fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 10.84 meters (35-6 3/4), while in the 400 hurdles,

Larson was sixth in 1:04.23 and Natalie Pisoke seventh in 1:04.35.

Little placed eighth in the shot put with a heave of 12.04 meters (39-6), while the crew of Larson, Emme Burrough, Ciara Ostrenga and Beverly Harper was fourth in the 4-by-400 relay in 3:55.57.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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