2019 GVSU Holiday Open

ALLENDALE, Mich. – Making its season debut at the lone early December competition, Academy of Art men's and women's track & field delivered multiple highlights at the Grand Valley State Holiday Open inside the Lakers' Kelly Family Sports Center. Among the standout performances were NCAA Division II Indoor Nationals provisional qualifications for Hasna Kaarour (3000m) and Ombretta Picciolie Minkue Meye (60m).

Carrying the momentum from her NCAA DII Cross Country Nationals appearance less than two weeks ago, Kaarour took seventh overall out of 20 runners in what ended up being her fastest 3000m race since coming to ART U. The 9:46.22 mark remained second all-time in program history and earned her provisional qualification by nearly 12 full seconds.

Minkue Meye competed in three different races on Friday and the first was particularly impressive. She dropped a 7.67 in the prelims of the 60m, ensuring herself not only a spot in the final at fourth overall, but also a provisional qualifier as she matched the Indoor Nationals standard. The Communications & Media Technologies major would go 7.68 in the final for fifth.

In step with Minkue Meye for all three races, Selena Arjona-Alcazar also reached the 60m finals where she placed seventh (7.71) after taking sixth of 35 in the prelim (7.74). The tandem went fifth and eighth respectively in the 200m as Minkue Meye found herself 0.16 shy of provisional qualification with a 24.98 in fifth and Arjona-Alcazar came through in eighth of 38 at 25.30.

Camille Jouanno began her 2019-20 indoor campaign with a 17-6.25 (5.34m) in the long jump.

On the men's side, Grant Swinton turned in his best indoor 400m as an Urban Knight. Placing second of 32 competitors, Swinton went 48.64 and ended up 0.13 off the Indoor Nationals provisional cutoff.

It was a photo finish between Daquan Berry and Roshard Williams in the first heat of the 200m with three decimal places being necessary. Posting a time that would tie Joshua Harris of Benedictine (Ill.) from the second heat, Berry took sixth at 22.5002 while Williams came across at 22.5009 for eighth in a complete field of 44 sprinters.

Challenging a field that featured four Nationals provisional qualifiers, Joshua Browne placed 10th of 32 in the 800m sporting a 1:55.47 mark.

The first collegiate 3000m for both James Young and Rabah Houali saw them not far from the Nationals provisional standard. Roughly four seconds off it, Young turned in a time of 8:26.42 for third out of the 11-man field while Houali finished fifth at 8:29.00.

When the indoor season resumes in 2020, Academy of Art will be back on the east coast to contest the Saint Thomas Aquinas Spartan Invitational (Jan. 10), Albany Great Dane Classic (Jan. 11), and the TCNJ Lions Indoor Invitational (Jan. 11).