ALLENDALE, Mich.- The Golden Eagles flew to Allendale, Michigan (49504) on Wednesday to compete in two of the biggest meets in the nation on February 9^th and 10th. Grand Valley State University hosts two separate meets in the same weekend called GVSU Big Meet Friday and Saturday. The unique part of this weekend is that, since they are separate, athletes have the opportunity to compete in the same event(s) two days in a row, or complete doubles that are not typically plausible. Concordia track and field, especially the distance runners, took full advantage of day 1 setting four new school records.
 
The first school record of the day was the lone male record. Noah Plaza clocked a 4:13.73 in the mile run which surpassed the previous record from 2007 by almost a second. It was also a two and a half second indoor PR for the sophomore. The record itself is impressive, but what happened in the next heat takes the cake. Freshman, Lucas Grunden, got his chance to show what he could do just one heat after Plaza and he was not going down without a fight. Grunden clocked a 4:14.00 in his career opener in the event, only .27 seconds off of Plaza's performance. If he had run it before his teammate, he would have held the record himself for a few minutes. A record that stood for 17 years was surpassed by two underclassmen in one day.
 
Other highlights on the men's side include performances from Owen Beam and Trey Vergenz. Beam managed a 4 second PR from his career opener in the indoor 5,000m just a week prior. Vergenz is maintaining consistent performances in the shot put with his second (out of two) competition over 15.50m.
 
The Concordia University Irvine women's track and field record book gets more dismantled every week. On just the first day of competition this weekend the women took down three school records tallying seven on the season so far. All three of today's records were in distance events, and two of them were almost 20-year-old records.
 
First came Porshe Eismann in the 800m run. Eismann ran an impressive 2:12.31 season opener in the event which was her first 800m race since NCAA DII Nationals in May. Eismann is now back in the national rankings as that mark surpassed the DII provisional qualification. Her time also beat the long-standing (2006) school record of 2:14.0. Eismann now holds both the indoor and outdoor 800m records for CUI.
 
The next record-breaker was Maddie Jahshan in the 5000m who smashed the previous record from 2007 (17:07.32) by running a staggering 17.01.98. Jahshan trailed her competitor for fourteen of the sixteen and a half laps before pressing on the gas and never looking back. She won her heat by more than a few seconds and PR'ed by sixteen seconds. This was after a forty second indoor PR (thirteen second career) only a week prior. This result is also Jashans first indoor national provisional and second career provisional as she ran a 10,000m provo in the 2023 outdoor season. She holds the school record in that event as well.
 
Jori Paradis refused to let the team go quietly into the night as she set another school record in the last race of the day for the Golden Eagles. Paradis broke her own 3000m record that she ran in Seattle, Wash. almost a year ago. She managed to cross the line in 9:47.43 which is more than 8 seconds faster than her time from last year. Paradis also hit the national provisional to achieve her first solo indoor provisional. She was a part of the provisionally qualifying and school-record breaking DMR from 2023 which was her first. Paradis also hit qualifiers in the 5,000m and 1,500m races in the 2023 outdoor season and holds the school record in the 1,500m.
 
Among the trio of records, many other ladies also put on impressive performances on day 1 in Allendale. Claudia Vera started off the day with a 4 second collegiate PR in the 5,000m run. Jasmyn Rios hit a new collegiate PR of 11.75m in the shot put, and teammate Tayla Crenshaw tossed the weight to a season's best by more than 20cm. Bethany Schmidt and Ruby Bishop ran season's bests in the 400m, and Logan Nelson ran a mere .01 seconds off her 200m PR for a seasons best as well. Finally, Jaela Thornburg opened her indoor career with an exciting 1:43.41 600m dash.
 
For GVSU BIG MEET FRIDAY results CLICK HERE
To follow GVSU BIG MEET SATURDAY live results CLICK HERE
For the entire track and field schedule CLICK HERE