Women’s track improves in home meet, MAC Championships up next

Women’s track and field improved upon its previous mistakes at GVSU this  in front of its home fans this weekend at the Jack Skoog Meet.

Leading into next week’s Mid-American Conference Championships, the Chippewas have gained a fair amount of confidence they need to progress.  With this meet being a stepping-stone, they now feel that they are starting to have things fall in place.

Gaining confidence at their very own Jack Skoog Indoor Track is something that director of track and field, Willie Randolph, was looking forward to this week in practice.  The home track atmosphere and the friendly hometown fans were able to give CMU’s runners the positivity it needed to compete.

“I think the atmosphere is exactly what we needed,” Randolph said.  “It was enough to make our players own this environment and support each other.”

Amongst those excelling at their respective events was freshman Lexi Melike, who finished first in the women’s 400m dash with a time of 1:01.35.  Her senior teammate Jackie McEnhill also came in first in the 800m dash with a final time of 2:22.05.

Also coming in first was senior Charnele Lyons, who came in with a time of 5:05.32 in the women’s one-mile run.

Even though the team is full of youth, the Chippewas are still getting positive results from their athletes.

A prime example of this is freshman Shaya Wilkerson.  She PR’d in the long jump with a distance of 18-01.05.  Being at home in front of loyal fans was a big boost for her.

“It definitely feels good to compete at home and having everybody come out to support you is great,” Wilkerson said.

Despite a qualifying mark for the MAC Championship being on the line, Wilkerson claims that it was not a nerve-racking experience for her.  She was just happy and excited to compete.

“I had a lot of fun today,” Wilkerson said.  “That’s what allowed me to jump so well.

Though this was a relatively smaller meet compared to previous ones, CMU did the things it needed to do in order to prepare for the MAC Championships next week in Ypsilanti, Mich.

The team will not have to worry about traveling after this meet, so it will expect to get plenty of rest in order to be in good condition for MACs.

The women’s indoor track team has not won a MAC title since 2004.