Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
Raleigh Relays
Track & Field Opens Outdoor Season at Raleigh Relays
3/27/2019 11:22:00 PM | Track and Field
The Spartans compete Friday and Saturday in North Carolina.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State track & field opens the 2019 outdoor season at the Raleigh Relays on Friday and Saturday March 29-30 at the NC State Track Complex in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Events begin on Friday, March 30 at 9:00 a.m. ET with the women's 5,000-meters and continue throughout the afternoon into the late evening. Saturday's action begins at 9:30 a.m. ET with the men's 10,000-meter run. A live results link will be available on msuspartans.com and on twitter at @MSUTrackFieldXC.
"I think practice has gone really well the last couple weeks, and I think we've been outside more this year than probably the last few years combined leading into this meet," Director of track & field Walt Drenth said. "We've been able to get some outdoor running in and that makes a big difference when you're talking about going from a 60-meter straightaway to a 100-meter straightaway and a 200-meter track to a 400-meter track. All the perspectives and rhythm on the track change, so it's been really good."
The Raleigh Relays features several teams from different conferences, including the ACC, SEC Big East and Big Ten, that will provide the Spartans with a good look at competition early on in the season.
"I think some of our top kids will set some marks early on in the season this week," Drenth said. "Last year we had some outstanding performances from a number of people. We had good discus and hammer, good pole vault and I would expect our high jumpers to do well. We had some really good marks on the track as well. I feel like with the time we've been able to spend outside, we're going to see some good performances out of a lot of groups, across the board."
MSU is coming off a successful indoor season that featured two national qualifiers in junior heptathlete Nick Guerrant, and sophomore distance runner, Annie Fuller. Guerrant set a new school record (5,944 points) in the heptathlon for the third time, on the way to a third-place finish and First Team All-America status in the event at last month's NCAA Championships. It was the best-ever finish for a Spartan at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Guerrant won the Big Ten Heptathlon title in Ann Arbor, and set new personal bests in the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and the 1,000-meter run this indoor season. Annie Fuller won two medals for Michigan State at the Big Ten Indoor Championships, including a career-best 4:35.63 in the women's mile for a third-place finish. Fuller also ran the fourth and final leg for the women's distance medley relay team to help the Spartans take gold, finishing with a time of 11:05.23 to overcome rival Michigan, who had posted the top time in the country a week before.
Heading into the outdoor season the Spartans will add several events to the competition not included in the indoor season, several of which they are expected to be highly-competitive in, including the javelin and discus, steeplechase, decathlon, 10,000-meters and 3,000-meters.
"We're all excited to see the events we think will do well outdoors that we add into the mix," Drenth said. "The relays, long throws, steeplechase … things that we think we're pretty good at. Also just to see how our energy is. When you look at it, we're six weeks away from the conference meet, so we want to make the most out of it."
Michigan State hosts its only home meet of the season following the Raleigh Relays, the Spartan Invitational, April 5-6 at Ralph Young Field.
Players Mentioned
