UDM Titan Track Club Newsletter

December 19, 2001

December Track Season- We got the ’02 Track and Field season off to a record breaking start with our two December meets. The sprinters-jumpers-throwers got things underway on 12-2-01 at Grand Valley State’s Holiday Open, with the distance runners joining the fun on 12-8-01 at Kent’s Golden Flash Gala. 7 UDM records fell covering most of the categories. Highlights from each area:

Throws- Matt Groh returned from his red-shirt year and proved he was back at full strength by taking his Shot Put record to 57’1” to win at GVSU. Matt just missed the NCAA provisional standard by 10 centimeters with that seasonal debut throw. Matt threw 55’0.25 at Kent and 56’4” at Windsor’s Xmas Open on 12-15-01, as well as a PR in the Weight of 55’2” for 5th at Kent. Bryan Grider made a dent in Matt’s share of the record book by throwing the Weight 56’6” for 2nd at GVSU and then increasing his record to 56’11.5” for 4th at Kent and he got a PR of 50’9.5” in the Shot Put good for 9th at Kent. Mese Roberts lead the newly constructed women’s throws group to a great start. Mese just missed her UDM Shot Put record with her 44’9.5” 3rd place Kent finish after a 42’3” 3rd place effort at GVSU. The GVSU performance lead a pair of rookies over the 40’ barrier, the first time 3 Titans have done that in one meet and a 3rd rookie just missed. Angela Machaj, Andrea Karpala, and Ashley Bauman finished 4th-5th and 6th with respective throws of 42’1.5”; 41’9” and 39’5.5” (PR!). The rookies also debuted in the Weight at GVSU with throws over the previous UDM rookie best. Andrea finishes behind Mese’s 3rd place 49’8.5” with a 47’11” for 4th, while Angela and Ashley were 6th and 7th at 44’10” and 44’1.5” respectively. The next week at Kent, Andrea snuck by Mese finishing 5th at 49’9.25”, with Mese in 6th at 49’7.25”. Should be a great year from the Titan throwers!
Jumps- Angelo Finnie proved he is ready for success on a high level this year with his seasonal debut. Angelo won the Triple Jump and Long Jump, improving his UDM record to 48’6” in the triple and just missing in the long at 23’3.75”. He also finished 2nd in the High Jump at 6’4”. Unfortunately, a strained groin at Kent limited him to 2 long jump finishing 5th at 21’11.5”. Joanna Grandas, won the Triple Jump at GVSU at 36’2” and was 3rd in the Long Jump at 17’9.75”. Emily Paden made her collegiate debut memorable by winning the High Jump at GVSU with a 5’2” leap. Jane Peterman got her Pole Vaulting going with a 9’6” 2nd place at GVSU and followed it up with match of her PR of 10’ for 7th at Kent.
Hurdles- Kelly Bernath opened her senior season in fine fashion, lowering her UDM record in the 300m Hurdles running 46.62 for 2nd and a PR in the 60m High Hurdles of 9.33 for 7th at Kent. Nia Cooper, picked up where she left off as our Most Improved for Outdoor, by placing 5th at GVSU for a 55m Hurdle PR of 8.96 and then a near PR of 9.59 for 8th in the 60m Hurdles at Kent. Angelo lead the way for the men, finishing 2nd at GVSU matching his PR of 7.85 in the 55m High Hurdles. Nick Wolfram was 4th after running his PR of 8.56 in the prelims. Chris Nowak ran HH PRs of 8.91 for 5th at GVSU and 9.49 for 60m at Kent and lowered his UDM record in the 300m Hurdles to 44.03 at Kent. Mike Simon, a former Soccer player from Avondale, made his lifetime Track and Field debut at GVSU, was 6th in 9.14. Matt Denner made his debut over the 42” hurdles, at Kent with an 8.92.
Sprints- Jack Szczepaniuk will use his speed and strength this year as a 400m/800m man and he used both to win the 800m at Kent running 1:55.19. Andras Lukacs ran a PR for 55m at GVSU of 6.73 for 4th and then our best 200m in December of 22.73. Jesse Meston ran a 60m PR of 7.45 at Kent. Joanna lead our sprint effort on the women’s side with a 3rd place 7.54 55m and 6th place 26.97 at GVSU.
Distance-Ruthie Cook and Kim Hemstreet wrapped up their tremendous fall semester by taking one of the oldest records in the book out. They shared the lead to a 1-2 finish in the 3000m at Kent with Ruthie getting the record at 10:08.13 and Kim matching it at 10:10.55. Kristin Smith made her Track debut running 11:17.75 for 5th in the same race and Kandyce Houser was 4th in the 1000m at 3:16.31. For the men, Matt Hoo and Nick Zerweck both got PRs in the 5000m of 15:47.78 and 16:15.50.

Indoor Schedule- the 2002 Indoor Track and Field Schedule is enclosed.
3rd Annual Detroit Track and Field Classic- the finishing touches are going on the outdoor schedule. We are planning the 3rd annual home meet to be on Sunday April 21st, with a noon-ish start time. The throws will be on campus and the running-jumping events will be at U of D Jesuit. We will need some volunteers and any Titan legends are welcome to compete!!! So dust off the spikes and start the training!!

Grades- Term 1 grades are in and once again, over 50% of our roster made the AD’s Honor Roll with 3.0s and above!!! A wiley veteran Adam Mancini got the 4.0 in his graduate school studies. All-As were earned by: Guy Diakow (3.94), Jesse Meston (3.88), and Kelly Bernath (3.85). Remaining Titan Scholar Student-Athletes: Ruthie Cook (3.54), Laura Gignac (3.563), Miesha Earven, Kim Hemstreet (3.667), Kandyce Houser (3.507), Andrea Karpala, Nichole Karr, Rosalyn Patton, Jane Peterman (3.686), Katie Roersma (3.506), Kristin Smith (3.581), Jessica Yagelski, Ciaran Carter (3.75), Andras Lukacs, Chris McPhee, Chris Nowak (3.6), Mike Simon, and Nick Wolfram.

Cross Country- 2001-Here is the wrap up on a successful season, where we added a home course hosting the Michigan Intercollegiates at Kensington Metroparks. The men had a small group that consistent and improved to 5th in the Horizon League. The women had an ever changing group that got help from Coach Bob Wilkerson’s Softball team (Thanks Bob!) to finish 4th in the Horizon League, the same as in 2000 but quite a feat after losing 4 of the top 7! Here are the award winners to highlight our season:
Dominick Taddonio MVP- Chris McPhee-became our first male 4-time All-League Performer with his 4th place 24:59 finish at the Horizon League Meet. Only the 2nd Titan to break the 25-minute barrier finishing 4th at the Paul Short Run in 24:53. Won the Running Fit-UDM Invite and the Michigan Intercollegiates, establishing a course record of 25:37 for the new course at Kensington. Chris won the Canada Summer Games 10k in August and finished the year as the 9th fastest Canadian 10k runner with his 30:11.69 at the Harry Jerome Invite in June.
Kevin Donner MVP-Ruthie Cook and Kim Hemstreet-they both ran close to the best season ever by a Titan. They both gained All-League honors for the second year in a row, as Kim was 3rd in a new UDM 5k XC record of 17:49 and Ruthie 6th in 18:07. Ruthie, took the best finish ever by a Titan at the regional meet taking 26th, just missing all-regional honors by 1 and Kim was 47th, the 3rd best Titan finish. Kim won the Michigan Intercollegiates in 18:59, while Ruthie was 3rd. Kim lowered her UDM 6k XC record to 21:25 for 4th at the Paul Short Run, and Ruthie was 7th in 21:29. Ruthie won the Central Collegiates becoming the first Titan to break 18 running 17:56 and Kim was the runner-up at 18:00. National Catholic finishes of 8th-Kim and 10th-Ruthie were then PRs of 18:11 and 18:17, which followed the great season opener at Cass-Benton.
Student-Athlete Award- Ciaran Carter- his best XC season with his 3.548 GPA in history won him this award. Ciaran opened with a couple of strong 4 milers and then PR in the next 3 races taking it to 26:30 at the Paul Short Run and closed with a 24 place improvement at the regional meet. Kristin Smith- brought her 4.0 pre-med GPA to Track and Field try-outs and ended up as the XC student-athlete award winner. She won her first lifetime race with a 20:23 at the Grosse Pointe 5k, just 8 days after the try-out. She debuted as our #3 runner at 20:33 and lowered that PR to 19:52 at the Horizon League meet.
Coach’s Choice-Matt Hoo- had a great summer including a 15:19 5k road race win to continue on his great rookie season. He lowered his PR to 26:36 at the Paul Short run and had his best performance on the challenging and very wet course at Kensington where he ran 27:04 to place 16th. Krista Peters- a softball star, who has not missed a game in her career at UDM, with a 19:57 XC PR from her high school days at Ortonville-Brandon. She was our top runner at the Motor City Classic running 21:42 for her return to XC. Due to softball obligations, she trained hard and missed some fast courses but lowered her lifetime XC PR to 19:51 at the Horizon League meet.
Rookie of the Year-Nick Zerweck-made his debut at the National Catholics as our #4 man at 27:53. He lowered that to 27:01 at the Paul Short run and ran the fastest December 5k for a rookie in his track debut at Kent State. Katie Roersma-it took mono to keep Katie from being the only Titan to run all the races during the season. She ran her best of 20:37 at the National Catholics and the mono probably explains why that didn’t improve later in the year.

Running Fit-University of Detroit Mercy Invitational-It was a great day way back on September 8th when we hosted the 15th annual running of the invitational. Chris, won the men’s race becoming on the 3rd competitor and only Titan to win the race twice in 20:28 and Ciaran, ran the 9th fastest Titan 4 miler at 21:49 for 34th as team finished 8th. Alums James Furkis and Ian Bedford finished 53rd/22:22 and 70th/23:18 respectively in the varsity race and both made their marathon debuts this fall at Huntsville and Niagara respectively. Congrats to them on the 26.2!!! Kim and Ruthie finished 2nd and 3rd in both the race and on the list of all-time Titan Cass-Benton 5k list with their 18:21 and 18:32 respective times, as the women finished 4th. In the Tommy Titan Races, a record number of women’s competitors of 162 pushed the record total of Tommy Titan competitors to 340. Eric McKeon was the alumni leader here running 18:20, while Tom Jacobs, Jerry Vogt, Scott Morell, Lee Mamola, Byron Betts and James Kant toured the Cass-Benton course. Larry Hoo was the parental winner finishing ahead of Jerry Roersma. Brian Cook was the UDM student champion but lost the sibling title to Joey Grandas who ran for Edsel Ford. Thanks to: All those who volunteered and help out and Paul Bedford, Steve Angerman, Paul Aufdemberge and Randy Step at Running Fit; Chris Beaudoin at McNish’s Sporting Goods and Rick Cummins, from Wayne State. Mark your calender, as the 16th edition will be on September 7th, 2002.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Looking forward to seeing everyone on the Track in the season ahead!!! Thanks for all the support and help!!!!

Coaches and Race Directors:
E-Mail us Your Press Releases!!

Send to [email protected]