Missouri S&T’s Brendan Smith (Chelsea Mich. /Chelsea) and UW-Parkside’s Ben Orvold (Sussex, Wis./ Hamilton) are the Great Lakes Valley Conference Men’s Indoor Track Athletes of the Week.

 

Smith, a junior for the Miners, earned a NCAA Division II provisional qualifying mark in the 800-meter run on Saturday. He ran his fastest 800-meter time of 1:53.43, taking sixth-place in the event. Smith also competed in the 4x400 relay, helping his team earn a NCAA Division II provisional qualifying mark with a time of 4:18.08.

 

Orvold ran his career-best time in the 5,000-meter run on Friday at the Grand Valley State Big Meet. Improving 18 seconds on his best time, he finished the race in a time of 14:41.24. Orvold earned UW-Parkside’s men’s first NCAA Division II standard since 2005, when Quinn Newton met the 3,000-meter steeplechase provisional mark. He took 19th place out of 82 participants.

 

UW-Parkside returns to action on Saturday when they compete at the University of Chicago Invitational. S&T travels to the Central Missouri Classic on Friday.

 

Other top performers in the GLVC this week included Indianapolis’ Frederick Helm, Lewis’ James Knaperek, Bellarmine’s Joey Blue and Southern Indiana’s Wes Masterson.