KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- In its only home meet of the season, the Western Michigan University track and field team was able to post strong results at the Jack Shaw Invitational. Katelyn Spooner, Grace Johnson, Kayla Schiera and Tess Van Dyk finished first in their respective events. 

Additionally, the Broncos honored three seniors (Makayla Perez, Ashley Shipps and Paisley Sipes) for their contributions to the program throughout their Bronco careers. 

On Friday, the meet began with javelin and hammer throw. Shipps was able to take fifth in the javelin with a throw of 27.40 meters, while Elli Stender claimed seventh with a mark of 26.39 meters. In the hammer throw, Lily Kucharek finished fifth with a throw of 43.53 meters. Behind her were Kennedy Hagens (36.78 meters) and Lane Hagens (36.59 meters), who finished 13th and 14th, respectively. 

Lane Hagens, Van Dyk and Kennedy Hagens then performed well in the shot put to open Saturday's portion of the meet. Lane Hagens finished third with a throw of 12.22 meters. Van Dyk was also strong, posting a fourth-place finish with a mark of 12.05 meters. Kennedy Hagens placed 10th with a throw of 11.35 meters. 

Van Dyk was the top performer in the discus, claiming first place with a throw of 42.12 meters. Lane Hagens was also able to nab a top-five finish, earning fifth place with a mark of 39.41 meters. Behind those two were Stender (34.74 meters), Kennedy Hagens (33.32 meters) and Kucharek (30.61 meters). 

To round out the field events, Anichka Malachi was terrific in the long jump, claiming fourth place with a mark of 5.34 meters. 

In the 1,500-meter run, Schiera ran unattached, but she was able to nab the top spot in the event with a time of 4:38.51. Just behind her in fourth place was Maggie Raab, who earned a time of 4:49.94. Alayna Ostling was also strong, notching 11th place with a time of 4:59.18. Sipes rounded out the Bronco finishers by placing 19th with a time of 5:23.58. 

Johnson was dominant in the 100-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in first place with a time of 13.95. The second-place finisher was more than a half second behind. After that, LaJeanee' Porter and Shipps performed well in the 800-meter run. Porter posted a third-place finish (2:26.10), while Shipps was able to grab 17th place (2:43.25). 

As the day continued on, Claira Gilchrist put another top-three finish on the board for WMU. She placed third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:03.68. To round out the afternoon for the Broncos, Spooner was able to grab first place in the 5,000-meter run, posting a time of 17:10.83. That was more than four seconds better than second place. Brooke Soper also had a top-five finish, as she placed fifth with a time of 18:19.57. 

WMU will be off next weekend before heading to the Jesse Owens Classic (hosted by Ohio State) and the Virginia Challenge. The Jesse Owens Classic will run from April 21-22, while the Broncos will compete only on April 21 at the Virginia Challenge. 

CATALDO'S COMMENTS
"I'd first like to thank our facilities crew and their student workers for helping us put on a great meet. I'd also like to thank Maya Mokrzan for helping us with our alumni event last night. These things don't happen without hard work and they deserve some recognition. I'd like to thank all the alumni that came back to town and supported us at the meet. It's great to have former athletes back home supporting the current Broncos," head coach Kevin Cataldo said.

Overall, today and yesterday, I thought we did well. We had some big personal best marks starting out with Ashley Shipps in the javelin. That carried over to the events today with individual wins by Tess, Grace, Kayla (even though she was unattached). We also had two athletes shave off 10 seconds from their 1500 PR (Maggie Raab and Alayna Ostling) which is what we are looking for. Claira Gilchrist came up big with a personal best in the 400m hurdles and we capped it off with about a 1:20 personal best and win from Katelyn Spooner in the 5k. There was a lot going on today that I may be missing in this recap but it was good for our athletes to be able to compete in front of the home crowd getting some wins and personal best marks. We're going to rest up this next week and get ready for our last regular season stretch before the post-season begins."