Lake Superior State's Track and Field teams finally got to the great outdoors, posting solid results at the Yellow Jacket Invitational on Saturday.
 
The first Outdoor Track and Field meet of the season, hosted by Cedarville University in Cedarville, OH saw Ava Donmyer and Keira Lamming score points for the Laker women's team, while Max Ward flew to an excellent finish in the Men's 400 Meter Hurdles.
 
"We feel like it was a very successful season-opener," said Lake Superior State Head Coach Matt Stith. "The whole point of the meet, really, is to get outside onto a 400-meter track for the first time all year, touch grass and blow off some rust. It's especially important for athletes who compete in events that we don't contest indoors, like some of the different throwing events, long hurdles and things like that."
 
Ward's final time of 54.53 is just 1.03 shy of DJ Battistella's school record, set in 2008 at the GLIAC Championships. On a chilly day with a negative wind factor, the freshman Ward caught the eye and threatened the 18-year old mark.
 
"Max had a really nice opening day. Those events will get faster as the weather warms up, but for the first time out, they were excellent results."
 
The first-year collegiate athlete excelled during the Indoor season, winning the 60 Meter Hurdles at the Jack Skoog Open in mid-January, then improving on that time at the Jet's Pizza Invitational two weeks later. On Saturday, he finished fourth in the 400 Meter Hurdles and fourth again in the 110 Meter Hurdles, finishing .99 shy of Justin Balczak's program-best time of 14.21, set in the 2013 GLIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Lamming scored points for LSSU with a 1:08.76 time in the Women's 400 Meter Hurdles, a new personal-best time. She also scored points in the High Jump, leaping 1.53 meters to finish seventh out of more than 30 athletes.
 
"If you can open up a season in chilly weather and run better than you've ever run before, that suggests that you're in for a really fine season," said Stith.
 
Donmyer finished sixth in the Women's Javelin, throwing 32.52 meters. She looks to continue building on her indoor season, when she set her Indoor best mark at 34.17 meters at the GLIAC Championships.
 
Sophomore distance runner Nathaniel Kilgore ran the Men's 10,000 Meters in 34:19.78, his first time running that distance on an outdoor track. He cut nearly three minutes from his 10K time at November's NCAA Division II Midwest Region Cross Country Championships, showing a large improvement.
 
A number of younger runners excelled in Ohio on Saturday, including Logan Beer in the Men's 100 Meters, while Chrisseth Mair and Camila Rodriguez ran well in the Women's 100 Meters.
 
The Lakers next compete at Mt. Pleasant, MI on April 11^th for the Chippewa Challenge, hosted by Central Michigan University.