MSU Hosts 2017 Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational

March 30, 2017

Meet Schedule | Meet Information | Performance List | Participating Teams

EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State Track & Field program will continue the outdoor season as it hosts the 2017 Auto-Owners Insurance Spartan Invitational this weekend. The only home meet of the season, the 11th-annual Invitational will include several teams from around the region with events held at Ralph Young Field, Munn Field and Jenison Field House. Admission is free to the meet and parking is located at the Spartan Stadium lot off of Shaw Road.

"I think we are making pretty good progress this outdoor season," said Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Walt Drenth. "I thought we had an OK indoor season, we came off a really good cross country campaign on both genders but I'm really excited about the outdoor season. We had our first meet last weekend and saw some really good performances so I'm pretty excited about how things are going so far."

The women's pole vault followed by the men's (Jenison Field House) will be the first contest of the Invitational on Friday, March 31 beginning at 1 p.m. The women's hammer throw (Munn Field) and the women's triple jump (Jenison Field House) will commence at 1 p.m. with the men's events to follow.

All running events will be held at the Ralph Young Field on Saturday, April 1 beginning with the men's 5,000-meter unseeded event at 11:30 a.m. The Saturday field events will begin at 10 a.m. starting with the women's discus, men's shot put and the women's high jump.

The Spartans started the outdoor season in stride with several standout performances at the Raleigh Relays on the campus of N.C. State last weekend, March 24-25. On the first day, junior Katelyn Daniels picked up where she left off last outdoor season breaking her own school record in the shot put where she took second with a school-record throw of 16.40-meters (53-9¾). She also nabbed a facility record and first-place finish in the discus with a throw of 55.83-meters. The team of freshman Annie Fuller, junior Kennedy Beazley, sophomore Erin McDonald and anchoring the relay team freshman Dillon McClintock took first and broke the MSU school record in the 4x1500-meter relay with a time of 18:28.87.

On the men's side, sophomore Will Agodu led the Spartans and ran a career-best time of 14.10 in the 110-meter hurdles for a second place finish, his previous best was 14.29 last season. Junior Alec Wiater ran a personal-best time of 53.37 in the 400-meter hurdles for a ninth-place finish. The team of senior David Washington, junior Alec Wiater, freshman Savalas Morgan and sophomore Will Agodu earned a second-place finish in the 1600 sprint relay on a time of 3:24.51.

"We will see a lot of participants from last weekend and a handful of new people," said Drenth. "We kept a few people home last week so there will be a lot of good hurdling, good short sprinting. We will have a presence in a lot of events and we will get to see some of our redshirt kids as well. We'll get to see not only what we have now but what our future will hold too so it'll be a fun meet."

Next up, Michigan State will travel to Louisville, Kentucky for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The meet will stretch from April 14-15.