Beadlescomb and Baldwin Highlight Busy Weekend for Track and Field

EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State men's and women's track and field teams completed an action-packed two-day span that covered three states on Saturday, as MSU had Spartans competing at the Rod McCravy Memorial, the Indiana University Relays and the Millrose Games.

McCravy Memorial
With the sprints and jumps teams in Lexington, Kentucky for the Rod McCravy Memorial, the Spartans were led by Heath Baldwin winning the men's heptathlon and four others placing second in their events at Nutter Field House.

For the jumpers, Friday saw Sophia Franklin take second in the women's pole vault with a 4.21m height, while Saturday featured Avery Budz posting a height of 1.68m in the women's high jump to finish second and Trevor Stephenson getting a 5.18m height to place second in the men's pole vault. Elizabeth Knoll also had a strong performance in the women's high jump at 1.63m, matching her personal record and tying for fourth place.

On the track, Ava Qe'Neisha Young opened Friday by qualifying for the semifinals of the women's 60m dash, while Jaiden Paris and Kaia Scheffler both qualified for the semifinal heats of the women's 60m hurdles. Paris followed that by winning her semifinal heat at an 8.41 time and going on to place fourth in the finals with a PR time of 8.35. Saturday also had Noah Sage get fourth place in the men's 200m when the rookie ran a 46.77 time, while Terrence Muex had PR times in the men's 200m (21.60) and 400m (47.75).

Baldwin and Ryan Talbot finished first and second in the men's heptathlon, as Baldwin set a personal best with 5701 points that included a 4.70m PR height in the heptathlon pole vault, while Talbot also had a career-best in points at 5599 and finished first in the 60m dash portion of the heptathlon with a 6.98 time.

"Overall, I think it was a really good competition and we performed well," said assistant coach Yolanda Johnson. "Both of our heptathlon athletes did extremely well, while our sprinters went out there and performed. They executed the way we wanted them to, and we're basically getting an idea of where we're at and the things that we might need to work on before the Big Ten Championships."

"Jaiden and I have been working on this (the 60m hurdles) for some time now, and to see that time appear on the clock was just pure joy. I've known for a while that Jaiden has had that type of time in her, but to see it come to fruition was just really amazing. For Noah, he had a little hiccup in Friday's 200m, and we just kind of sat down and talked. I let him know that he was ready to run, and that you're going to have hiccups in some races and that's stuff we want to learn now so when we do go to the conference championships, we have addressed them and we've worked on those things. So, Noah was very ready to run the time that he ran. He actually asked me probably 30 minutes before what's the time I planned for him and I told him it was going to be very fast. After the race, he found me and he asked me if that was the time that I thought he could run, and it was because Noah has been practiced that extremely well. He executes, he does everything. He's very coachable kid and it was it was just great to see him get that time so early in the season."

IU Relays
The Spartan contingent in Bloomington, Indiana for the Indiana Relays at Gladstein Fieldhouse had numerous personal-record times for the distance runners, including a PR by Jenna Magness to take second in the women's 3000m, while the throws team faced tough competition in their events.

Friday's distance races led to a pair of runner-up finishes by MSU runners, as Melanie Helder placed second in the women's mile run with a PR time of 4:446.69, and Andrew Nolan followed her by taking second place in the men's mile run at a 4:08.16 PR time. Both Spartans then posted PR times in the 800m races on Saturday, with Helder running a 2:11.44 time (11th) and Nolan posting a 1:52.73 PR finish (13th).

Another men's mile run on Saturday saw John Petruno place sixth at a PR time of 4:04.49, while Katie Osika took home fourth (2:07.95) and Lauren Freeland (2:11.04) placed eighth in the women's 800m race by tallying personal-best times. This set up the women's 3000m run, where Magness ran a 9:05.62 PR time to finish in second place and Lynsie Gram followed behind in sixth with her own PR time of 9:16.60.

On the infield, Quiara Wheeler placed sixth in the women's weight throw at 19.88m, while Joshua DeVries finished ninth in the men's weight throw with a 17.04 distance.

"We got in what we needed and I was really pleased with a number of people across the board," said Director of Track and Field Lisa Breznau. "There were a couple of events specifically with Friday and Saturday where we really wanted to get in some work and be competitive at the same time. Melanie made a tremendous step forward this weekend, Katie ran a really respectable leg in the DMR and PR'ed the next day, and Lauren Freeland's performances is just a sign of really great things to come. Jenna and Lynsie continued just to be really consistent and gritty every day, and it was pretty spectacular at the end there with Jenna and Ole Miss' Sintayehu Vissa battling it out. I feel we could run that race again in a week and the outcome may be different. Quiara was also competing against one of the toughest fields outside of the NCAA Championships this weekend, and she did a good job of trying to work through some things and I'm certain she's going to be better and better as the season progresses. So, we're taking what we learned and carrying on from there."

"On the men's side, Andrew did a phenomenal job in the mile as someone that just always competes no matter what, Steven Stine did a nice job competing as well in the 3000m, while John Petruno had such savvy moves throughout his mile race. We just need a couple more weeks and that's all going to come together."

Millrose Games
MSU distance runner Morgan Beadlescomb made the trek out to New York City on Saturday for the 114th Millrose Games, as he was one of three collegiate athletes taking part in the Dr. Sanders men's 3000m race.

Facing familiar competition in Iowa State's Wesley Kiptoo and former BYU star Conner Mantz, Beadlescomb held back early on but made a push into the middle of the pack and kept himself there for the remainder of the race, finishing with a 7:43.22 personal-record time that placed him seventh on the track and put the Spartan representative at No. 6 all-time in men's collegiate history in the 3000m.

"Morgan is a talented individual, very intelligent," Breznau said. "He's knows what he needs to do in each race, and I think he did that today. Morgan just did a phenomenal job of putting himself in it where he needed to be, and it turned into a big-time finish for him."

Former Northern Arizona runner Geordie Beamish won the 3000m crown at a time of 7:39.50, while former Oregon Ducks Cooper Teare and Cole Hocker were second and third respectively. Mantz was fifth, while Kiptoo placed 11th in the pack and Stanford's Charlie Hicks was 12th.

Up Next
Michigan State will send athletes to South Bend, Indiana on Feb. 4-5, competing at the Meyo Invitational hosted by Notre Dame. The full MSU squad will then travel to the Windy City Invite on Feb. 11-12.

Beadlescomb and Baldwin Highlight Busy Weekend for Track and Field

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Players Mentioned

Heath Baldwin

Morgan Beadlescomb

Avery Budz

Joshua DeVries

Sophia Franklin

Lauren Freeland

Lynsie Gram

Melanie Helder

Elizabeth Knoll

Jenna Magness

Tee Muex

Andrew Nolan

Katie Osika

Jaiden Paris

John Petruno

Noah Sage

Kaia Scheffler

Trevor Stephenson

Steven Stine

Ryan Talbot

Quiara Wheeler

Ava Qe'Neisha Young