UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University men's and women's track and field teams hosted the Indoor Holiday Classic today (12/2) to open their 2011-12 indoor season.  

Junior Tyler Grob (Pinckney, Mich./Pinckney HS) led the SVSU men with a first-place finish in the pole vault with a height of 4.56 meters.  Teammates Frank Sanders (Detroit, Mich./Sterling Heights HS) and Joseph Burelle (Sterling Heights, Mich./Livonia Stevenson HS) also earned first place finishes on the afternoon.  Sanders in the high jump with a leap of 1.97 meters and Burelle in the mile coming in at 4:27.25.  Senior Greg Baade (Warren, Mich./De La Salle Collegiate HS) also earned a top finish in the mile, placing third, timing in at 4:28.73.  Jumping a distance of 12.08 meters and placing first overall in the triple jump competition was sophomore Raetron Bryant (Burton, Mich./Artherton HS).  Placing second and third in the weight throw were throwers Brian Bott (Buckley, Mich./Kingsley HS) and Matt Wilkinson (Mt. Clemens, Mich./De La Salle HS) recording marks of 16.36 and 14.38 meters, respectively.  Distance runner Jon Wetters (Essexville, Mich./Garber HS) record a time of 8:55.32 for the 3,000-meter run, good for a third place finish.

Leading the women's team was junior Ashley Meyer (Shepherd, Mich./Shepherd HS) who wrote herself into the SVSU record books by recording a time of 5:01.41 in the mile.  Meyer beat the previous record (5:02.61), set by Becca Rudey in 2006, by just over a second.  Teammates Alycia Wright (Macomb, Mich./Lutheran North HS) and Dana Stolicker (Deckerville, Mich./Deckerville HS) would place first and second in the 800-meter run, recording times of 2:18.58 and 2:23.98, respectively.  Placing first in the pole vault was senior Elizabeth Willford (Gladwin, Mich./Gladwin HS) who cleared a height of 3.64 meters, just short of the school record (3.70 meters).  Earning a second place finish in the open 400-meters was sophomore Diamond Taylor (Southfield, Mich./Southfield HS) who clocked in at 1:00.30.  Throwers Kayleigh Nelson (Standish, Mich./Standish-Sterling HS) and Jo Anne Carter (Goodrich, Mich./Goodrich HS) would place second and third overall in the weight throw competition with tosses of 14.39 and 14.29 meters, respectively.

The Cardinals will be back in action again Friday (1/13) when they host the SVSU 'Doug Hansen' Open.