The women’s basketball team was the only team on campus this week. Men’s basketball, the track team and the swim team competed in Ohio and at Saginaw Valley State University.

Men’s Basketball

The men’s basketball team took on the Youngstown State Penguins and Cleveland State Vikings on Thursday, Jan. 9 and Saturday, Jan. 11.

Against Youngstown State, the Golden Grizzlies fell in the final seconds of the game as Penguins point guard Darius Quisenberry drove the length of the floor and dropped in the game-winning layup. With a final score of 61-60, the men’s basketball team fell to 1-3 in Horizon League play. Xavier Hill-Mais led the team with 15 points, Tray Maddox had 11 and Madison Monroe scored 10.

Two days later, the team traveled to Cleveland to take on the Vikings. Coming into this game, Cleveland State was in the top half of the conference at 3-1. The Golden Grizzlies were able to break their three-game losing streak, defeating Cleveland State 68-55.

Hill-Mais and Blake Lampman finished the game both with 15 points, with Kevin Kangu the only other player in double figures with 13 points.

The men’s basketball team continues their road trip over the next week, traveling to Green Bay and Milwaukee to face the 2-3 Phoenix and 3-2 Panthers.

Track

The track team resumed their indoor season at the Saginaw Valley State Open at Saginaw Valley State University. The women’s team’s distance runners finished in five of the top six spots in the 3000m run. Megan Nichols took first, Heather Czarnecki took second, Rachel Kempf took third, Courtney Jarema took fifth and Taylor Conner took sixth.

The men’s 3000m team also had the top four finishers in the 3000m run. Connor Wuori, Shawn Slater, Zach Pettinga and Nathaniel Langlie finished one through four respectively.

Eddie Harrell III took first in the 800m run, while Zach Stadnika took fourth. Harrell took third in the mile run, while Nate Corcoran-Miller finished in second.

Other top finishers include: Olivia Kane in pole vault (T-1st), Malcolm McIntyre in the 200m (1st), Sheldon Drake in the 60m dash (1st), Marcus Nellum in the 60m hurdles (1st).

Swim & Dive

The men’s and women’s teams recorded 13 top two finishes against the University of Cincinnati and Kenyon College on Saturday, Jan. 11. The women recorded six of the 11 top finishes, with Katie Colwell getting three of them. Colwell was part of three top finishes in the 50 free, 200 free relay and 400 Medley Relay.

Taylor Bailey finished first in the 200 breaststroke, Susan LaGrand took first in the 200 backstroke and Sohvi Nenonen took first in the 200 butterfly to round out the other top finishes for the women’s team.

The men tallied five top finishes, with Mario Khotynetskyi finishing second in the 200 backstroke and 200 IM. The 200 free team of Christian Bart, Mack Flowers, Ryan Geheb and Rudy Aguilar also took second place with a time of 1:23.63.

As a team, the Golden Grizzlies finished second to Cincinnati in both men’s and women’s competition. The swim teams will travel to East Lansing to take on MSU next on Saturday, Jan. 18.