Issue 26, February 24, 2020 - Grand Valley Lanthorn

G R A N D VA L L E Y L A N T H O R N

A legacy, not a name Exploring the life of sister Ardeth Plate

How important are skilled trades now?: GVSU staff share their opinions CAREER| A6

GVSU Swimming & Diving remains dominant in GLIAC championships SWIMMING & DIVING | A12

M O N D A Y, F E B R U A RY 24 , 2 02 0 // VO L . 5 4 N O. 2 6

@ GV L A N T H O R N

LANTHORN.COM

A2 | NEWS NEWS BRIEFS GVPD CAPT. STOLL ADDRESSES SEXUAL ASSAULT INCIDENT

On Saturday, Feb. 15, a mass email was sent out to all Grand Valley State University students. In the email, an incident of sexual assault was detailed. The incident took place in Enclave, an off-campus apartment complex. In the report detailed by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department, a student was attending a party at the complex when she was pulled into a room where the attack occurred.

“It’s important to remember that it’s an Ottawa County based incident, as it took place off-campus at Enclave,” said Grand Valley Police Department Capt.

Jeffrey Stoll. “If they need our help, we will do anything within our power to help them out, but as of right now they are leading the investigation.”

When asked about the incident, Stoll urged students to stay in groups. Stoll made sure to note that it is never the victim’s fault, but that staying in groups with your friends can help reduce the risk of an incident occurring. Stoll said that good practice is to have one or two people in your group be designated as sober so that everyone has a safe ride home.

“We talk about this idea of a sober driver frequently but a sober partier is also important,” Stoll said. “It’s important to have someone in your group that can make coherent, rational decisions in intense, emotional moments.”

MYSUCCESS CHECK SURVEY ANNOUNCES 2020 WINNERS

Two students received a surprise for their participation in the mySuccessCheck survey, which was distributed to all new first year and transfer students.

Elizabeth Chase, Student Retention and Special Projects Coordinator, said that every student who took the survey was entered to win up to $500 in free textbooks for the following semester.

Chase congratulated the two winners, who were both transfer students, in an email. The winning students included Simon Long, a General Management student from Northville, Michigan, and Samuel Zlydaszyk, a Marketing major from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLNEWS

CAMPUS

Meal donation, Food Cubby programs raise awareness for, combat food insecur ity

BY NICK MORAN EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM

As part of a multi-department collaboration, Grand Valley State University is rolling out a new tool to battle food insecurity on campus. Starting this week, students can volunteer to donate meals into a pool that will then be available for their peers to request as needed.

Associate Dean of Students Aaron Haight said that the idea drew inspiration from other schools where a similar program is implemented. Working with partners at the Center for Women and Gender Equity, Campus Dining and other departments on campus, Haight said this semester’s program would be a stress test to prepare for next year’s student body.

“We’re hoping that this will be a pilot, so I’m sure there’s going to be little hurdles along the way that we’re going to try and work out,” Haight said. “But it’s going to be a collaborative effort.”

Upon release, students can fill out an online application to receive meals on their account. Student Support Manager Emily First said that the application serves as a great way to gauge student need and provide resources accordingly.

If a student has a rough week, is in be-

tween jobs or had an unforeseen expense that rendered them unable to pay for a meal, they may request a few meals to help them get by. On the other end, if students are consistently requesting meals, First said support staff like herself are working with campus partners to provide long-term solutions.

Some of these solutions may be the SNAP program, accessing Replenish or working with counseling if needed.

“We’re actually even including a question on that form (that says), ‘Do you want Financial Aid to review your information?” First said. “That way, we can have Financial Aid automatically reach out to them for things like that. So it’s definitely going to be a connection to resources.”

Haight said that when more data is collected, there will be room for growth. One idea already discussed is allowing faculty, staff and even alumni to contribute meals as well.

This program is being released following the inaugural Food Cubby Project location in the Mary Idema Pew Library. First said the Project is an extension of Replenish, the university’s student food pantry.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

COLLABORATION: The Food Cubby Project is a new tool to help combat food insecurity on GVSU’s Allendale Campus. COURTESY | EMILY FIRST

LAKER EFFECT

GV Fraternity walks 160 miles for MS research

BY JANE JOHNSTON NEWS@LANTHORN.COM

While many students at Grand Valley State University are looking forward to a relaxation-filled week off from school, the brothers of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity will spend their spring break walking 160 miles from Traverse City back to Allendale for their annual “ATO Walks Hard” event, which raises money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The university’s ATO chapter has held this event for the last eight years, and Jacob Best, who in his fourth years at GVSU and has made the trek twice, said it “shapes the culture” of the fraternity.

Nathan Stuart, a junior who is currently serving as the chapter’s philanthropy chair, said Walk Hard was the reason he decided to join ATO as a freshman.

“I just thought it was so incredible,” Stuart said. “It was just something I saw myself doing and wanted to get invested in.”

SIBS AND KIDS WEEKEND INVITES GV FAMILIES TO CAMPUS

Grand Valley State University’s Campus Activities Board and Office of Student Life invited a plethora of Laker families to campus this past weekend.

Sibs and Kids is designed to have a range of events for college students and their families to participate in throughout the weekend.

Activities included a carnival, a VSCO craft session, a trivia night, movie showing and improv show among others. A $5 wristband was a kid’s all-access pass to the whole menu of fun activities, providing them with a fun taste of GVSU’s campus life.

PHILANTHROPY: This spring break, GVSU’s ATO fraternity will host their annual 160-mile “ATO Walks Hard” event, which raises money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. COURTESY | GVPD

The team walks an average of 20 miles a day, experiencing the aches, pains and fatigue folks with MS live with daily.

“It’s a very humbling experience,” Best said.

Although the journey can be extremely challenging at times, the men of ATO said it’s not all horrible. The best part, Best said, is the brotherhood.

“You find yourself talking about almost anything,” Best said. “You’re an open book on the walk, and it’s kind of great to be able to see what’s going on in your brothers’ lives and understand what they’re dealing with.”

Of course, they don’t walk 160 miles just to hang out with their friends.

“The reason why I do it is it’s really about that one person with MS who can live a little bit better because of what we do,” Stuart said.

Over the past eight years, ATO has raised over a quarter of a million dollars to go towards research and lowering prescription costs for patients suffering from the neurological disease. Best and Stuart, who are both working towards degrees in the medical field, have worked first-hand with MS patients who could benefit from their fundraising efforts.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLNEWS

A3 | NEWS POLICE

CONTENTS CAMPUS

| A2

EDITORIAL

| A4

BUSINESS

| A5

RELIGION

| A7

ACTIVISIM

| A8-9

EMPLOYMENT

| A10

SWIMMING & DIVING

| A12

W. BASKETBALL

| A13

M. BASKETBALL

| A14

SOFTBALL

| A16

VOL. 54

NO. 26

Lan thorn EDITORIAL STAFF

Layout Editor VIVIANA RUBIO

Editor-in-Chief NICK MORAN Associate Editor AMY MCNEEL

Layout Designer KHOI TRAN PROMOTIONS

Associate Editor BRIANNE KERR News Editor SEAN CAUVET Sports Editor KELLEN VOSS Laker Life Editor YSABELA GOLDEN

‘This is my Home:’ Officer Minh Lien protects GVSU while having a lot of fun

BY KELLEN VOSS EMAIL@LANTHORN.COM

When walking around the Grand Valley State University campus, there are not a lot of faces that everyone recognizes.

At this point in her tenure, President Philomena Mantella is hard to miss by even the youngest of freshmen. And it’s impossible not to smile when Louie the Laker passes by.

In that way, Louie is very similar to Grand Valley Police Department Officer Minh Lien.

Despite being one of the dozens of police officers working for the university, plenty of students know Minh’s name. But that’s not why he does what he does.

“I don’t do it to be liked or for a pat on the back,” Lien said. “My parents always taught me to do the right thing. I’ve been on second shift for a long time now, it will be 19 (years) on Sept. 23. Just like President Haas, he didn’t do his job to be liked, or to be praised, and that’s the same goal I have here.”

Lien has one other main goal on every 10hour shift he has: he simply wants to make the people around him smile.

“I love working with students, and in a 10hour shift, I want to make somebody’s day,” Lien said. “Just walking around and being positive and engaging with students and other community police officers. They challenge me to meet more people. The more informa-

tion I give out, the more kids feel more comfortable in this community.”

GVSU’s notable community police officer has been at this job for 18 years, as when engineering didn’t work out at Kettering, he changed his major to criminal justice and graduated from the GVSU police academy.

He has worked past jobs with Grand Rapids Public Schools, Grand Haven public safety and the Kentwood Police Department.

The lesson he has taken away from a nearly two-decade stint as a community police officer is that communicating with the students is key, as they feel safer when they know who they can turn to in a crisis.

“What I’ve learned from community policing and the police academy is the more they see us, the higher the safety factor and the more the students are put at ease,” Lien said.

He also learns a lot from the same young people that he tries to make feel good at their home away from home.

“I learn a lot from students too,” Lien said.

“I’m the kind of person who is not a knowit-all. I tell the younger officers (that) we all have strengths and weaknesses. We have a lot of eyes and ears, and the more of a rapport we build with students the better.”

Lien made sure to credit his coworkers who help keep the campus safe, as there are roughly two dozen other officers who do what Minh does to go along with a depart-

ment that is one of the strongest at GVSU. “This is where crime prevention is at it’s best,” Lien said. “When nearly 6,000 eyes and ears come help us.”

On his bio on the GVSU website, Officer Minh credits the famous religious figure Buddha for his philosophy on life: “All wrong-doings arise because of mind. If mind is transformed, can wrong doing remain?”

When asked to explain his philosophy for that quote, Officer Minh could go on for hours.

“Fast forward 10 years down the road,” Lien said. “You’re a police officer and you send your kid here — do you want the police officer to look at your father or son negatively? These are young, underage kids. They’re not bad people. This is where we put them on the right path.”

Lien also cited the teamwork from departments like the LGBT and women’s centers and the counselor’s office, as they all come together to help students graduate.

Lien also got into this field because he wanted to change the narrative around police in America. He wants to help people, and the best way he knows how to do that is trying to put a smile on students’ faces.

“This is my home,” Lien said. “We’re approachable. Especially if you want to be a police officer, come talk to us and reach out. If you don’t reach out, we don’t have the answers.”

Promotions Manager ALEX DAGASTINO ADVERTISING STAFF Advertising Manager JESSE BECKER BUSINESS STAFF

A&E Editor MARY RACETTE Image Editor BENJAMIN HUNT

Business Manager RACHET RUTGERS Asst. Business Manager NEHEMIAH HUDGINS-LOPEZ

WHAT DO WE RECYCLE? At the Lanthorn, we strive to bring you the most accurate news possible. If we make a mistake, we want to make it right. If you find any errors in fact in the Lanthorn, let us know by calling 616-331-2464 or by emailing editorial@lanthorn.com.

The Grand Valley Lanthorn is published weekly by Grand Valley State University students 31 times a year. One copy of this newspaper is available free of charge to any member of the Grand Valley Community. For additional copies, at $1 each, please contact our business offices.

PLASTICS

CARDBOARD

CANS

GLASS

PAPER

BATTERIES

WHERE DO WE RECYCLE? All housing living center units and academic buildings!

The Lanthorn is published on recycled paper and is printed with soy bean ink. This means that our newspaper is entirely compostable. Help us do our part to be kind to the environment by recycling or composting this newspaper after you enjoy reading it.

POSTMASTER: Please send form 3579 to: Grand Valley Lanthorn 0051 Kirkhof Center Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI 49401

Laker Village, Ravines, and Grand Valley Apartments have multi bins in their parking lots.

FEBRUARY 2 - MARCH 28 The GVSU Recycling Program was created to allow our campus the opportunity to recycle many commonly used disposable items.

This not only keeps materials out of the land fill, but also saves energy and raw materials in the manufacturing of new products

CAMPUS COMMUNITY: Officer Lien engages with Lakers to try to build trust between the police force and students. GVL | ALEXIS VELAZQUEZ

A4 | OPINION

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLNEWS

By Katie Cussans

GVL EDITORIAL CARTOON

EDITORIAL

Can we bridge the gap between students and student government?

G 02/24/20

editorial@lanthorn.com

News on News: Institutional censorship is nothing new for the Lanthorn

BY KELLEN VOSS SENIOR MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM

Over the course of the semester, the Lanthorn will be conducting an editorial and column series titled “News on News” revolving around how news is consumed today, the concept of ‘fake news’ and the fight journalists continue to fight to have their voices be heard.

For better or worse, our little old

student-run newspaper went viral last month after a former offensive coordinator from the GVSU football team said he would like to have dinner with Hitler.

Part of the reason why the story gained as much momentum as it did was that a higher-up at the GVSU athletic department asked us to take the final two responses out of the article.

It’s understood why they tried to censor our piece: from a PR standpoint, a coach mentioning that he would want to lead like a dictator who committed genocide doesn’t exactly make the university look good.

This is not the first time that a Lanthorn staff member was contacted by the powers that be to take down something that made the university look bad. In 2013, the Lanthorn published an editorial

wondering why so many buildings had to have donors names on them, and where exactly the money they were donating was going.

Audra Gamble, who was the Laker Life editor at the time and is currently the Editor-In-Chief of the Holland Sentinel, remembers the criticism the Lanthorn took like it was yesterday.

“The editor-in-chief at the time (Lizzy Balboa) and I wrote about the study rooms with donor’s names on them in the Mary Idema Pew library,” Gamble said.

“We ran an article saying what was happening, and an editorial questioning the limit of when this naming was going to stop. Where does the line draw?

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

Charity cannot be our long-term solution

BY XAVIER GOLDEN SOPHOMORE ART EDUCATION EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM

Poverty is one of those issues that feels very apolitical. People, I think we all agree, shouldn’t go hungry or be homeless. And our solutions to this problem seem equally uncontroversial; we raise

funds, we donate and we volunteer.

Most of the time, we don’t really think too hard about it. I mean, it’s charity. Why would we have to think twice about charity?

We have to seriously consider the ideas behind charity, because it is not a solution. Charity won’t end poverty. Communities can’t rely on the goodwill of the privileged to aid the unprivileged and this has been proven time and time again.

Any attempt to combat food insecurity, lack of access to healthcare or homelessness that is heavily reliant on individuals choosing to give their time, money or resources will inevitably fail to address the root of the problem. However, oftentimes, we find that charity is our only option for helping those in need.

Because our institutions have failed us.

It’s not hard to find examples of our reliance on charity: the GoFundMe pages for sick children, the cutthroat competitions for scholarship money, thrift stores, nonprofit rescue missions and the list goes on and on. Millions of people in this country rely on private citizens and organizations in order to have access to basic necessities.

We’ve always been dependent on the kindness of fellow human beings, but there’s definitely something that has sustained our dependence on charity in the current age of (relative) stability and national governments. And that something is Ronald Reagan.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

rand Valley State University’s Student Senate has been thrown into the limelight a couple times this academic year, gathering attention from the community and students alike. But in between those moments of fame, the Senate often seems to be floating on an island of their own.

Perhaps this is why students attended last week’s general assembly meeting to collect film for a documentary analyzing the disconnect between the student body and the student government.

It would be easy to blame this disconnect on the Senate.

For students, it can be difficult to find opportunities to have open discourse with Senators, let alone speak to them in a student-to-student kind of way. And, of course, the very nature of the Senate is political, which can make conversation feel constrictive.

However, the blame really goes both ways. The Senate does hold outreach events such as “Meet the Senators.” Also, their contact information is readily available online and their weekly meetings are all open to the public.

But many students just don’t want to engage. We have busy classloads and social lives, and if we’re being honest, local politics can be a little boring after sitting through multiple hours of debate — this is something we know firsthand, as we have been to our fair share of general assembly meetings.

While the meetings aren’t always exciting, they are worth-

while and they do matter, especially when it comes to the student body. If you feel like the Senate isn’t acting with your favor in mind, it’s your job to let them know. How is the Senate going to act on the student body’s behalf if the student body doesn’t ever express their needs?

This school year, the biggest student turnout for a general assembly meeting came during the discussions about the Pledge of Allegiance. Why? Because at the end of the day, people don’t care about what is happening at Senate meetings until something sensational happens.

Not many people came out to support the implementation of a new prayer room on campus or the reinstatement of the Senate’s sustainability sub-committee, both of which provided positive change on campus.

If we truly want to bridge the gap between the student body and the Student Senate, regular students need to be that bridge.

The Senate has time for public comments both at the beginning and at the end of each general assembly meeting, which takes place every Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The body also live tweets their meetings and the Lanthorn reports on the outcomes every Monday after they’re held.

Maybe you don’t have to come to every meeting, but keep an eye out for when they are covering something that matters to you, or contact them online if you have something you think needs to be addressed. The first step to being heard is to speak up.

GVL OPINION POLICY The goal of the Grand Valley Lanthorn’s opinion page is to act as a forum for public discussion, comment and criticism in the Grand Valley State University community. Student and columnist opinions published here do not necessarily reflect those of the paper as an entity.

The Lanthorn strives to be a safe vehicle for community discussion. With this in mind, the Lanthorn will not publish or entertain any forms of hate speech, but neither will it discriminate against any other views, opinions or beliefs. The content, information and views expressed are not approved by—nor do they necessarily represent those of—the university or its Board of Trustees, officers, faculty or staff.

Letters to the editor should include the author’s full name, relevant title and a headshot, along with a valid email address and phone number for confirming the identity of the author. Letters should be approximately 500-650 words in length, and they are not edited by the Lanthorn staff except to fix technical errors or to clarify.

Reader submissions on the opinion page appear as space permits.

To make a submission, email editorial@lanthorn.com or drop your submission off in person at:

0051 KIRKHOF CENTER GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY ALLENDALE, MI 49401 616-826-8276

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLNEWS

A5 | NEWS

BUSINESS

FlannelJax brings lumber sports to Grand Rapids

BY NICK MORAN EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM

After opening its doors late last November, FlannelJax finally hosted its grand opening event, which invited members of the community to participate in a range of lumberjack-themes activities.

“This is just an opportunity for us to celebrate and invite the community in to see who we are and what we do,” said Vice President of Franchise Services and Operations Terry Stewart.

The main event for many were the various axe throwing stations, which pinned eight participants in a fun competition to score most points. Lumber Jacks and Jills worked with groups to teach them throwing techniques and safety rules. Picking either two-handed or one-handed forms, participants hurled axes at wooden boards, splintering wood to try and earn points for their team.

Other events included a crosscut saw, where pairs of participants each held one side of a massive saw. Under the pressure of a clock, they attempted to work together to cut a portion of the log faster than the previous record holders.

Those waiting could also take on a group of friends in Thump the Stump, which involved taking turns driving a nail into a stump. Each participant was allowed one good swing before passing the hammer onto the next group member.

Between lumber sports activities, food and drink, the event features a steady flow of com-

munity members, including business teams looking for a bonding activity to local residents checking out the new location.

“The (community’s) response has been fantastic,” Stewart said. “We’ve been well-received by the community. Each week we’re growing more and more customers... We’re just really happy with how the community has shown us support. Hopefully we continue to be very successful here in Grand Rapids.”

The location sits within eyeshot of Grand Valley State University’s DeVos Center in Grand Rapids, which makes it accessible for students via the Rapid or those who live nearby. Stewart said that FlannelJax provides a service that college students will really enjoy, with activities that they may not experience anywhere else nearby.

“It’s a great outing,” Stewart said. “It’s reasonably priced. It’s an opportunity for you to come out and experience something maybe you haven’t done before and it’s a great way to get together with friends to have a good time.”

While FlannelJax has other locations around the country, Stewart said they strategically chose Grand Rapids to place their next franchise. With that choice has come great success thus far, and that’s something they hope to carry into the rest of the year.

“We love the community, the demographic, the nice college atmosphere as well,” Stewart said. “It’s got a good solid base of corporate head offices, so that’s really what we look for when we plan one of our locations.”

TAKE A SWING AT IT: Local business leaders celebrate the opening of a new lumber sports business downtown Grand Rapids with axe-throwing and other lumberjack activities. GVL | NICK MORAN

LAKER EFFECT

Event focuses on water restoration in Ottawa County, GV campus

BY AMY MCNEEL ASSOCIATE@LANTHORN.COM

Grand Valley State University’s Alternative Breaks program is taking Lakers across the county this upcoming spring break. While the organization provides students with the opportunity to travel, it is ultimately focused on creating active citizenship through community-based learning projects.

This year, students have the option to travel

to Murphy, North Carolina for a trip focused on water restoration. To provide information before the trip on water restoration and issues happening around Ottawa County, GVSU student Kayla Quinn, who is leading the trip, hosted an event in partnership with the Making Waves Initiative (MWI).

The event took place Tuesday, Feb. 18 in the Kirkhof Center room 2266. Included in the event was Water Resources Commis-

EDUCATE: The Making Waves Initiative continues, giving students and faculty the opportunity to get educated and get involved with the protection of our natural resources. GVL | MICAH HILL

sioner of Ottawa County Joe Bush, Planning and Performance Improvement Director Paul Sachs and Geology Professor and MWI Co-Leader Peter Wampler.

“One of the things we really focus on at alternative breaks is educating, so I thought bringing speakers in with these resources would be beneficial for education before the trip,” Quinn said. “I wanted to do this event sort of to collaborate with these other organizations. So I think definitely there will be a big partnership, and I’m hoping some of our participants will go on to volunteer for more local organizations like Making Waves.”

Bush was elected in 2012 and now is the overseer of up to 1,000 county drains.

When elected, his title was Drain Commissioner, but Bush had the name changed to Water Resources Commissioner due to the vast roles the position fills.

“When I started Jan. 1, I said, ‘You know, this position of being a drain commissioner is a lot more than just maintaining waterways and drains,’” Bush said. “This is about water resources. Water resources to me is protecting natural resources, protecting the environment, protecting our water quality and the water that goes through our waterways. I feel like it’s my responsibility to make sure it’s clean.”

Bush and Sachs said that Ottawa County is the fastest-growing county in Michigan. While this ultimately means the county is booming, it also means that more houses, more roofs and more roads are being built. This means more runoff and less wetlands. Bush said a lot of the wetlands in Ottawa County have been overtaken by development.

“When you have development, you kind of take land that was or will be or maybe should have been a wetland,” Bush said. “Wetlands are very, very critical to the whole process of clean water, clean drains, the habitat and everything else. If you ruin your wetlands, it’s hard to clean the water out before it goes into our waterways.”

Another problem with this development is the increase in runoff. Bush said that the state of Michigan is like a sponge and that Ottawa County is estimated to be 80-90 percent full of water. Thus, any melt or rain becomes almost entirely runoff which fills lakes, creeks and drains at an increased speed.

All three speakers touched on the importance of awareness when it comes to water restoration. Bush said that simple tasks such as washing cars in the grass rather than in the street can have a positive impact.

To learn more about water restoration efforts at GVSU, visit gvsu.edu/makingwaves.

FRBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLNEWS

A6 | NEWS CAREER

How impor tant are skilled trades now?: GV staff share their opinions

BY AUDREY WHITAKER AWHITAKER@LANTHORN.COM

Jeff “Ski” Marcinkowski, Grand Valley State University Facilities Maintenance Supervisor, will retire this July after more than 13 years at GVSU. Those who work with him will likely not only miss their boss and friend, but struggle to find the right person to take his place.

Last year, the state of Michigan launched the Going Pro initiative, designed to help fill the demand for qualified trades workers. Marcinkowski has experienced this demand firsthand. ”In 2013, 35 million tradespeople were eligible for retirement,” Marcinkowski said.

“If all those people left in 2013, probably the US industry service industry and skilled trades would crash because there’s no amount of apprenticeships, tech schools or anything out there that could provide enough trained skilled people to fill all those jobs.”

Dave Searles, Career and Technical Education Director at Careerline Tech Center (CTC), said that he has seen a noticeable increase in students pursuing technical and trade careers in Ottowa County.

“Nine years ago we had 1,180 students in

the building, now we’re up to about 1,500,” Searles said. “We’re serving over 2,000 kids every year with Career Exploration classes.

The interest is way more than it was. I think kids are educating themselves earlier. It went from if you want to come here you come to more competitive.”

Searles said that CTC partners with over 300 companies in order to provide students with hands-on experience early on.

“The local companies have such demand for workers, so we’re trying to get kids plugged into jobs really have a career ladder, and there’s some pretty amazing opportunities out there,” Searles said. “Aside from that, it’s just a good education. Most people learn by doing, rather than just by listening, so combined were helping our local economy for sure.”

Marcinkowski said that the high demand for qualified employees has created a competitive market for employers while increasing the cost of labor.

“Men and women who are going into the trades in their freshman year, all the service companies in the area that deal with mechanical, plumbing or wherever it may be, are talking to those students in their freshman year,” Marcinkowski said. “They

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: Around Grand Valley State University and in the county, there has been a noticeable increase in students pursuing technical and trade careers. COURTESY | THOMAS HAWK

still have two, three or even four years to go, but they’re coming in with the hopes that they can hire them (students).”

Marcinkowski said that because of this, finding a qualified employee is a challenge.

Once they find someone, Marcinkowski

said that companies tend to hold on to their employees for a long time.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

CONVERSATION

Filmmaker and GV alum John Otterbacher discusses his latest film, “Moving Parts”

BY NATHAN SLAUER NSLAUER@LANTHORN.COM

OPEN A DIALOGUE: GVSU alum John Otterbacher had a chance to speak on his new project. COURTESY | GRFILMFESTIVAL.COM

John Otterbacher has come a long way since his days of watching experimental art films with his dad in the basement. As a Chicago-based filmmaker, he manages the independent film company Orange Chair Productions and teaches at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy.

Yet Otterbacher fondly recalls checking out classics like “Apocalypse Now” for the first time and realizing how film can open the viewers to new worlds.

“I never wanted a regular job,” Otterbacher said. “I’d be bored out of my mind.”

Otterbacher’s journey toward a career in film began at Grand Valley State University, where he studied video production and received his Master of Science in Communications.

The GVSU Summer Film Project, an annual series where students fill roles on a professional movie crew, was the highlight of the program.

Flickering Blue, a 23-minute movie about an isolated 80-year-old man exploring the city, became Otterbacher’s favorite entry in

the series. Crewmembers practiced their camerawork with cinematographer Jack Anderson and GVSU film professor John Harper Philbin.

“It was my second year as a student when I worked on Flicker Blue, and I started in a low-tier position as a camera operator and later moved up,” Otterbacher said. “It gave me a certain level of confidence.”

In-between productions, Otterbacher would check out film festivals and concerts in Chicago. When Otterbacher graduated and received an offer to produce a film called “RiffRaff” in Chicago, he jumped at the chance to move to the Midwest’s largest film market.

The transition was not always smooth. As a new filmmaker, Otterbacher taught himself the production side of the film business quickly and accepted any gigs that popped up, not just passion projects.

“The independent film world — there’s not a lot of money in it,” Otterbacher said. “I needed to find a balance between making the films I wanted to make and paying the bills.”

By the time he reached his late 30s, Otterbacher had decided to supplement his independent film career by pursuing his MFA and teaching film.

The inaugural class of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program originated from countries around the world.

A student named Emilie Upczak traveled to the U.S. from Trinidad, seeking to turn her film Moving Parts into her thesis project.

Upczak and Otterbacher met on campus, and they clicked. Soon, the pair were working together to bring Upczak’s globe-spanning story to life.

Moving Parts tells the story of Zhenzhen, a young Chinese woman who travels to Trinidad in search of her brother Wei and finds herself caught up in the human trafficking industry. The inspiration for Moving Parts comes in part from Upczak’s memories of seeing seedy establishments and desperate people in Trinidad.

With its crew based in Trinidad, Moving Parts required a more substantial budget than what a graduate student typically receives for a project. With some luck, the Moving Parts team raised enough money to keep the international production going.

Once shooting wrapped up, Moving Parts moved to Chicago for post-production.

In total, Moving Parts took five years to complete and roll out.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLNEWS

A7 | NEWS

RELIGION

GV hosts 4th annual MIMIL Interfaith Conference

BY OLIVIA FELLOWS OFELLOWS@LANTHORN.COM

The importance of learning about the diversity of religion and its impact on higher education, its students, and the world today is something that Grand Valley State University takes seriously. On Saturday, Feb. 22, GVSU’s Kaufman Interfaith Institute, in partnership with Campus Interfaith Resources, hosted the fourth annual Made in Michigan Interfaith Lab (MIMIL) at the Richard M. Devos Center on the Pew Campus.

The day-long conference was attended by students and staff from seven different universities, colleges and seminaries from around West Michigan. The conference included eight different informational sessions guided by knowledgeable guest speakers that covered interfaith topics ranging from an introduction to what interfaith work and dialogues are to frameworks and techniques for being highly engaged in interfaith spaces and how they can help build leadership skills.

Kevin McIntosh, coordinator for GVSU’s Campus Interfaith Resources and campus engagement manager for the Kaufman Institute, said that the main goal of the conference was to strengthen attendees understanding of interfaith work and help identify ways that a deeper understanding of the world’s religions and interfaith dialogues can help bring people together and benefit people both individually and collectively.

“With social justice and interfaith work on college campuses, sometimes it can feel like an island because you’re not really sure who else is doing it,” McIntosh said. “Having an event that brings people from different universities and backgrounds helps make

those connections between people that love the work and want to educate others who don’t know what the term interfaith means and how it applies in the real world.”

The conference connected students and faculty from universities like Hope and Calvin College, where religion is an important part of student life and education. With sessions covering topics like intersectionality and interfaith traditions, students were able to share their experiences with interfaith work and discuss why community should not come at the expense of hindering or withholding different identities from one another. Other sessions covered concepts like skills and methods for engaging in challenging conversations and examine best practices concerning difficult issues of religious diversity on campuses and civic environments.

The conference introduced students from a range of majors, grades, backgrounds and colleges which made for a diverse learning experience. Isabella Lieberman, a sophomore accounting major at GVSU, said that she saw the conference as an opportunity to learn more about how interfaith work impacts the ways people interact and view one another and themselves.

“I was interested in the conference because I did a lot of this kind of work in high school and I was excited to learn that I could continue it in my college experience,” Lieberman said. “I think learning about interfaith dialogues helps foster a respect for all of the different religions and it can also help you learn a lot about yourself and your own beliefs and those are things that you will take with you after college.”

At GVSU, the Kaufman Interfaith Institute and Campus Interfaith Resources help stu-

FAITH CHAT: Students and staff from different schools across West Michigan gather at GVSU to discuss interfaith community and religious diversity on college campuses. GVL | ALEXIS VELAZQUEZ

dents begin their interfaith journey through hosting events like the MIMIL conference, interfaith guest speaker events, site visits to local interfaith seminaries, and campus interfaith conversation nights. The Institute and Resource Center also work with many of GVSU’s faith-based student organizations to support and appreciate the richness of interfaith diversity at the university.

McIntosh said he encourages all students, no matter what major they may be or what their religious background is to work on staying educated on interfaith topics, as religion impact almost every post-college career, and being knowledgeable about diverse religions is an important part of being able to correct-

ly and respectfully interact with people of all different backgrounds when you join the workforce after graduation.

“College is the perfect place to begin important social dialogues like interfaith work because of the diversity you see on every campus,” McIntosh said. “You have people of different ages, races, religions, sexualities and genders all in the same space, and gaining skills and insight into what makes us all unique is important in how we choose to interact. Religion impacts all types of careers, and being aware of different traditions and developing respect for all of them individually helps people to interact and do their jobs in a more positive, open, and less partisan way.”

GOVERNANCE

Student Senate conducts business while filmed for documentary

BY LUCAS SWARTZENDRUBER LSWARTZENDRUBER@LANTHORN.COM

POLITICS: Senators discuss ways to diversify the Senate after reviewing results from the Student Senate Climate Survey. GVL | MICAH HILL

Similar to the Feb. 13 meeting, Student Senate adjourned early at 5:55 p.m. for the Feb. 20 general assembly. However, senators accomplished substantial work, including discussing the latest Student Senate Climate Survey. Meanwhile, several students filmed the meeting.

“Those students are working on a film project about Student Senate and how to better connect students with the work that we do,” said Student Senate President Eric-John Szczepaniak.

Szczepaniak said every Student Senate meeting is open to the public, including for recordings. After all, he explained senators are public officials who hope they are serving students’ best interests to the extent of inviting anyone to general assembly.

After filming the Senate meeting, the production crew interviewed Szczepaniak along with senators Grace McMahon and Autumn Mueller. All three were asked whether they believe a disconnect between

students and Student Senate exists. Later, they explained how Student Senate is mitigating the disconnection.

Sometime during the filmed interviews, the Student Senate Climate Survey was brought up. Vice President of Senate Resources Hannah Benoit said the survey occurs annually, though she mentioned not much discussion of it occurred in earlier years. Therefore, she and the Senate Resources Committee sought to give the survey greater meaning this year.

Benoit said her committee wanted the questions to be as thorough as possible. Many questions were taken from the myGVSU Climate Survey. The survey also featured options instead of open-ended questions as Benoit explained this allowed for better feedback from surveyed senators. Answers included numerical ratings and demographics.

For instance, around 41 percent of senators involved in the survey said they major or minor in political science. Additionally, about 80 percent of participants identified as white. For gender, over half of the sur-

veyed senators specified being women. Even religion was covered in the survey; over 82 percent of respondents said they either practice Christianity or are not religious.

Szczepaniak said the results show Student Senate can do better on diversifying membership. The survey has suggestions for improving the Senate, including limiting how many political science students can serve as senators. Senator Joel Pagel, though, said he would be weary of putting a cap on majors. Instead, Pagel recommended telling students of other majors to join Student Senate.

As for implementing any changes from the survey, Benoit said a majority vote in the constitutional task force (CTF) is required.

The Senate’s executive vice president leads CTF while each committee contributes two delegates to the group. CTF reviews the Senate’s internal documents, including bylaws and the constitution, for possible updates.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

A8&9 | LAKER LIFE

A

legacy, not a name: Exploring the life of Sister

BY JANE JOHNSTON LAKERLIFE@LANTHORN.COM

Sister Ardeth Platte’s voice is kind and gentle. The first time we spoke, we chatted for over an hour about the incredible life she’s lived, and she ended the call by saying she wanted to learn more about my life.

“Bless you in what you’re doing,” she told me before she hung up the phone.

“Lots of love.”

Much like the way Sr. Platte spoke to me, the work that has occupied the better part of her 84 years on Earth has been grounded in peace and love. But most of all, it’s rooted in justice. ___________________________________ These days, Sr. Platte lives in Washington D.C. When I spoke with her, she was in California to be with her brother, who had just gotten out of surgery. She was accompanied by fellow nun and her partnerin-crime, Sr. Carol Gilbert. The two were headed back to Washington D.C. the next day but wouldn’t be there long.

They spend most of their time traveling the country, trying to rally support around the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The treaty was written in 2017 by the United Nations, and Sr. Platte was there for it all. It was during that year that she and Sr. Gilbert joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN. In her 66 years with the Dominican Sisters, an apostolic community with a hub in Grand Rapids, Sr. Platte has found herself on the frontlines of several movements.

She’s spent a lifetime advocating for the poor, environmental issues and the world’s total disarmament of nuclear weapons.

She may be known best for her anti-nuclear activism. While living in Michigan in the 1980s and 90s, she helped rid the state of all its nuclear weapons. Years later, she and the ICAN team received a Nobel Peace Prize for their work with the U.N. This work has gotten her arrested on several occasions, most notably in 2003 when she was sent to federal prison for three-and-a-half years, earning the title of “terrorist” in the state of Maryland and a character on the 2013 Netflix Original, “Orange is the New Black.”

When I bring up these most talked about protests in the early 2000’s, she immediately cuts me off.

“No,” she repeated over and over again.

“It was way before then.”

To Sr. Platte and others who take part in these Plowshares actions, “every loving act of nonviolence is as important as every other.” Sr. Platte didn’t care if I knew about the moments in her life that were the most publicized, she wanted me to understand why she did them in the first place. And it wasn’t because she wanted to be on Netflix.

Sr. Platte began studying Plowshares back in Michigan, and connected deeply with the movement and the community that started it all, Jonah House. In 1995 when she and her team had successfully shut down the last Air Force base in Michigan that housed nuclear weapons, she decided to pack up and move to Baltimore.

“So, there’s no nuclear weapons remaining in Michigan,” Sr. Platte said, “We thought, ‘Well, let’s go closer to the Pentagon!’”

During her tenure at Jonah House, she completed four Plowshares actions, each of which built off the last. Each action represented how nuclear weapons threatened the various aspects of our universe: water, air, space and land, respectively. Sr. Platte and her crew used their own blood to represent “the messiness of war that we want to stop,” and hammers “to get rid of that that… does not benefit society and to reconstruct and to develop something good and positive.”

Although getting arrested isn’t the main purpose of a Plowshares action, it’s definitely part of the plan.

“When we went into court and jail,” Sr. Platte said of their protest at Andrews Airforce Base, “that one was really good because we had the chance to get every bit of what is legal and what is illegal into the documents of the courts.”

This is the life of Sr. Ardeth Platte. Day in and day out, she spends her time planning her next move. The moves she’s making now, however, is what she considers her most important yet. ___________________________________ In 1970, 191 countries joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a document the U.N. thought was going to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Sr. Platte said that didn’t happen.

“Just like taxation, there are loopholes,” Sr. Platte said, “They use loopholes in the NPT to circumvent the abolishment of nuclear weapons.”

She criticized nations across the globe,

Ardeth Platte

especially the United States, for continuing to make and sell nuclear weapons all these years later. “What they’re doing is illegal,” she said in an exasperated tone.

“When the United States goes to war in any country,” Sr. Platte said, “We are always doing actions to unmask what they are doing that is legal or illegal. Because if you don’t hold your government accountable, they will… lie, they will steal, they will perpetuate funding that perpetuates their billionaire, millionaire clubs.”

What they will never do, she said, is what is best for the people they represent.

That’s where ICAN stepped in.

When Sr. Platte and Sr. Carol heard that ICAN was planning on creating TPNW with the UN, they immediately joined in.

They, along with other international organizations, spent three weeks that summer negotiating the terms of the treaty, which were much more rigorous than NPT. “This treaty… will end nuclear weapons,” Sr. Platte said. “I think when we end nuclear weapons… we start doing what is basically, humanly necessary for all of the country and for the world again.”

The negotiation process was almost as exhaustive as the treaty itself.

“It was like a day and night affair,” Sr. Platte said, “(It’s) where we hammered out this magnificent treaty.”

A lot of the work she’s been doing recently has been with people much younger than her, but she likes it that way. “I find younger people so much more astute as it relates to violence,” she said, crediting any progress that has been made on this front to groups led by young people like Black Lives Matter and March for Our Lives.

“I love what I see in the movements,” Sr. Platte said, comparing today’s political activism to the kind she took part in during the 60s and 70s. “I love what I see when I listen to the young... I am celebrating young people, and I know and trust that young people will… make a better world.”

In her mid-80s, Sr. Platte knows her time left on Earth is rather limited, but she’s hopeful that young people will finish the job she started. “Young people are just yearning to learn about this treaty,” she said, adding that she hopes her years of work will inspire a new generation of organizers.

If anyone knows about how impressionable one’s youth can be, it’s Sr. Platte .

She grew up in the small, close-knit village of Westphalia, Michigan, an hour east of GVSU. She was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school entire life, and while

social justice issues were never explicitly talked about, her activism was no doubt impacted by her upbringing.

She lived through World War II, seeing the devastating impact it had on her community and the rest of the world. She fell in love with nature through the farming she took part in from a very young age. But the real inspiration for her life’s work came after she left Westphalia.

She continued her studies at Aquinas College, which was where she first met the Dominican Sisters. “(The Dominican Sisters) deeply inspired me,” Sr. Platte said. “They were just ordinary people, but such great people and such compassionate… people, who really taught me a lot about living.

She would go on to serve as a schoolteacher for many years, working with poor and disenfranchised students in inner-city Saginaw at the St. Joseph Alternative Education Center.

It was during this time, while working with adults, dropouts and students that were expelled from school for participating in the Civil Rights Movement, that she decided to commit her life to fighting injustice.

“It was a time of upheaval when I really learned about the injustices — especially for black people and brown people and for the poor,” Sr. Platte said. “And from that point, I just never turned back. This will be the rest of my life.”

She has never broken that promise. Sr. Platte has given her life to causes she believes are necessary for the survival of the planet. She lives modestly, disdains luxury, and doesn’t miss a beat.

“Whatever you’re going to [write],” Sr. Platte told me the last time we spoke, “I hope it’s about the issue, not the person.”

Everything you need to know about Sr. Ardeth Platte can be found in the jail cells she was kept in after trespassing onto Air Force bases and praying for an end to nuclear war next to the weapons themselves.

It can be found in the garden she kept during her time at Jonah House, the fruits of which fed people in the poorest parts of Baltimore. It can be found on the streets of New York, Washington D.C., and Lansing where she’s protested with the likes of Jane Fonda and Cesar Chavez.

Sr. Platte doesn’t seem to care much if you know her name, she cares that you understand the legacy of her work.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLAKERLIFE

PRIOR TO ARREST: Protests resulting in Sr. Platte going to jail were a part of the plan, as they provide opportunities to get information into court documents. COURTESY | DOMINICAN SISTERS ARCHIVE COLLECTION

SYMPATHETIC SCHOOL TEACHER: Students at St. Joseph High School where Sr. Platte worked were expelled for participating in the Civil Rights Movement. COURTESY | DOMINICAN SISTERS ARCHIVE COLLECTION

SISTERS OF TODAY: Originally the Marywood Academy boarding school, Marywood Campus is now the Motherhouse (principle convent) of the Grand Rapids Dominican Congregation. GVL | MEGHAN LANDGREN

FOR EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD: Protesters fought against the making and selling of nuclear weapons. COURTESY | DOMINICAN SISTERS ARCHIVE COLLECTION

INFORMED FAITH: The Sisters at Marywood Campus work hard to share their Order’s passion for study and learning. GVL | MEGHAN LANDGREN

A10 | LAKER LIFE A LOOK AT CAMPUS LIFE UNIVERSITY COUNSELING COMBATS EATING DISORDERS

According to the National Eating Disorder Association, eating disorders in female college students have risen from 23 percent to 32 percent over the last 13 years, and from 7.9 percent to 25 percent in males. As a result, they emphasize the important of having college health services that assess and treat eating disorders on campus. This year, Grand Valley State University is acknowledging National Eating Disorder Awareness Week by holding free and confidential screenings for students, faculty and staff.

On Wednesday, Feb. 26, those interested in this service can head to several locations on both the Pew and Allendale campuses.

Kirkhof Center is holding screenings from 12-6 p.m., the Center for Health sciences is from 1-3 p.m., the Eberhard Center is from 3-5 p.m., and the Rec Center and the DeVos Center are both from 2-6 p.m.

LGBT CENTER HOLDING TALK ON RELIGION

Many arguments against same-sex marriage — legislative and otherwise — are rooted in appeals to religious freedom. Grand Valley Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Political Science Department Darren Walhof is addressing these arguments in his talk, “Religious Liberty, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Bigotry Anxiety.”

The talk, which will take place in Kirkhof Center room 2215/2216 at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 25, focuses on the anxiety of Americans who are against same-sex marriage that their beliefs are regarded as bigoted instead of religious. Waldorf frames this conflict with two different moments of religious liberty in history: proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Acts before and after the legalization of same-sex marriage, and the religious claims to defend racial segregation during the Civil Rights movement.

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLAKERLIFE

EMPLOYMENT

Students create connections at Career & Internship Fair

BY KATHERINE ARNOLD LAKERLIFE@LANTHORN.COM

On Feb. 26, the winter semester Career & Internship Fair will be held at the DeVos Place Convention Center. from 1-5 p.m. Whether students are interested in a full-time job, an internship or simply establishing business connections, a GVSU Career Fair is a typical place to start. With hundreds of employers in attendance, many students will find that visiting is well worth their time and effort.

“The Career & Internship Fair is for students of all ages, even freshman,” said Kristie Scanlon, the Employer Relations Coordinator for the Career Center. “It’s a great opportunity for underclassmen to seek out part-time and seasonal opportunities, or just learn more about what types of jobs and industries are hiring people for the majors they are considering.”

Before attending, there are a few things every student should do to make sure they get the best out of the experience. Preparing a self-introduction and a strong resume are essential, but even more important is research.

A full listing of participating employers can be found at gvsu.edu/careers/wintercf20.

PROFESSIONAL: Students are advised to come in business attire, bring multiple copies of their resumes on professional resume paper and keep phones in their pockets. COURTESY | CAREER CENTER

“The more information you can gather beforehand, the more successful the job fair is going to be for you,” Scanlon said. “Figure out which organizations you are interested in and spend time doing some research on them.”

Of course, there are also important things that students do while they are there. At every Career Fair an “Ask Me Table,” located

just outside the Exhibit Hall, is run by career advisers as well as faculty and staff. They run the booth in order to answer any questions a student might have, especially for finding interesting employers.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

EDUCATION

Teachers attend GV’s Math in Action

BY YSABELA GOLDEN LAKERLIFE@LANTHORN.COM

GET REGISTERED TO VOTE BEFORE THE MARCH 10 ELECTION

Time is running out for students who aren’t yet registered to vote but want a voice in the upcoming presidential primary. Both Republicans and Democrats have Michigan primary ballots on March 10, voters being able to choose which party’s ballot they want to fill out. The party ballot selected during the primary has no bearing on what party a voter can vote for during the August and November elections.

GVSU Votes is helping members of the Grand Valley State University community vote by hosting one more Voter Registration Drive before March 10. The next drive will be hosted by the Panhellenic Council on Feb. 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Kirkhof Lobby. Those who can’t make it can also register to vote online at the State of Michigan Voter Information Center, mvic.sos. state.mi.us/RegisterVoter.

MEANINGFUL MATHEMATICS: Seidel Horn’s keynote emphasized the importance of classroom discussion to learning. COURTESY | JOHN GOLDEN

Every year, Grand Valley State University holds Math in Action, a conference dedicated to the professional development of math teachers at all levels of education. The day consists of six sessions packed with 43 different presentations, hosted by a variety of GVSU faculty and staff, visiting professors from other universities and K-12 teachers working in the field. The conference, held Saturday, Feb. 22, is themed around making mathematics more meaningful for students, and featured a keynote address from math education researcher Ilana Seidel Horn.

“It’s really challenging to foster meaningful mathematics discussion in the classroom,” Seidel Horn said. “Part of that challenge is social risk. When you ask a student to share what they think, they have to weigh out whether they’re going to participate and please their teacher, or not participate and save face in front of their peers by not appearing ‘too smart’ or ‘too dumb.’ Math class in particular has very high levels of social risk.

In our culture, being good at math is equated with being smart, so making a mistake in math has higher consequences.”

Her research on classroom motivation led her to closely observe and analyze the classrooms of six exemplary teachers work-

ing across the country in a variety of grade levels and school environments. She found five core strategies that they used to effectively encourage discussion in their classrooms; belongingness, competence, accountability, autonomy and the topic of choice for the conference: meaningfulness.

“Meaningfulness is not built in to the way we teach math,” Seidel Horn said. “Strong students in a traditional math class are those who turn in work on time and get answers correct, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting anything meaningful out of the content. Curious students do not equal successful students in our current school system. The teachers I was looking at set up problems to pique student curiosity, and designed instructions to have a place for student ideas.

“One teacher, Fawn Nguyen, came up with the Barbie bungee project — it’s basically a linear modeling problem where students are tasked with giving Barbie the most thrilling but safe fall from three meters,” Seidel Horn said. “They’re given a few rubber bands to experiment and estimate how many the full three meters will require, and then build the whole bungee cord to see if their calculation worked.”

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLLAKERLIFE

A11 | LAKER LIFE

POLITICS

GV students debate abortion

BY AUTUMN BABAS LAKERLIFE@LANTHORN.COM

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics in American politics. According to the Pew Research Center, the partisan divide on abortion is substantial and growing. Still, groups are attempting convince those on the other side of the spectrum.

On Feb. 11, Grand Valley State University student group Protect Life tried this through their “Stump the Pro-Lifer” event. Protect Life Michigan has been hosting the event at every college in Michigan for the past four years. Trevor Pollo, Protect Life Michigan’s Director in Training gave a speech about why he thinks abortion should be illegal.

“When we look at the field of embryology, they observe that the unborn from the moment of conception is growing, is reproducing at a cellular level and is consuming energy,” Pollo said. “These are things that biologically alive things do.”

According to Protect Life Michigan there are about 920,000 abortions performed in the United States each year. But the Guttmatcher Intitute, a research group that supports abortion rights says abortions are at a historic low.

“I am definitely pro-choice. I think when it comes to pregnancy a lot of decisions go

into it,” said activist and GVSU junior Alexis Gunn. “I am the product of teen pregnancy, so I don’t think anyone should be forced to go through that when they don’t want to.”

Although there are restrictions, abortion is legal in all 50 states. Reproductive rights experts anticipate the abortion landscape to change even more dramatically in the year ahead due to expected court rulings and new laws. Protect Life at GVSU continues to push for abortion to be completely illegal. Their mission is to end abortion by recruiting and training students for pro-life leadership.

“We host a couple bigger events on campus such as Stump The Pro-Lifer,” said Protect Life Co-President Sarah Remillard. “We also do Cemetery of the Innocents. The Cemetery of the Innocents is a memorial to those who have lost their lives due to abortion.

There are 927 flags in the display, and each flag represents 1,000 lives lost to abortion in America alone.”

Republican-led states, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s new conservative majority, passed 59 abortion restrictions in 2019. Some students at GVSU are frustrated by this.

“I don’t think President Trump has a right to put more restrictions or less restrictions on each state, per say,” Gunn said. “I don’t think it is anyone’s choice other than

who carries the baby.”

Some states have successfully implemented 20-week abortion bans. Other states have enacted laws that prohibit or limit abortion in the second or third trimester. Restrictions depend on the state.

None have abolished abortion entirely due to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court Decision that protects a woman’s right to have an abortion. But now, more than 200 Republican members of the House and Senate are fighting it. In January, these representatives and senators wrote a brief in a court case arguing it’s time to overturn Roe v. Wade since its been standing for 47 years.

Director of Protect Life Michigan Christen Poll said Stump The Pro-Lifer welcomes the opposing side and encourages discussion.

After Trevor Pollo’s speech at the event, he opened up the floor for anyone that had questions. Several students opened up on their stance during the event.

“The other side does care about women, does care about children,” Remillard said. “We can’t demonize the other side.

We should come together and talk to them about all our concerns.”

Pro-choice advocates like Gunn also spoke out about their opinion on the issue with rape cases, using statistics from the Cen-

ter for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It’s one in three women that are raped or sexually assaulted,” Gunn said. “Unfortunately, I am one of them. When I went through that, I couldn’t imagine if I was also pregnant.”

According to recent studies, more than one in four female college students have experienced sexual assaults that lead to unwanted pregnancies. The majority of women who utilize abortion clinics are in their twenties.

“There are actually very few abortion clinics,” said Anne Larson, junior at GVSU. “A lot of people have to travel a great distance that will offer the service to them. Most Planned Parenthoods don’t even offer it, but yet we see these protesters harassing people going there for something like a pap smear.”

Currently, there are no pro-choice groups at GVSU, but there may be one in the future.

“I definitely think if we have a pro-life group, and a pro-choice group isn’t on campus, there is definitely about to be one,” Gunn said.

Stump the Pro-Lifer is continuing to be held at colleges and universities in Michigan and surrounding states. Although the debate over abortion is not yet solved, both sides are continuing the conversation.

A GROWING DIVIDE: Protect Life’s goal with their statewide “Stump the Pro-Lifer” events is to create dialogue with those on the other side of America’s polarizing abortion debate. COURTESY | PROTECT LIFE

GVSU

A12 | SPORTS QUICK HITS GVSU BASEBALL SPLITS DOUBLE HEADER TO OPEN SEASON

The Grand Valley State baseball team opened the 2020 season with a doubleheader split of Ohio Dominican on Saturday at Lincoln Memorial University. The Lakers dropped game one, 10-5, before regrouping in game two to defeat the Panthers 9-2.

The Lakers got on the board in the first inning as senior Nate Bonter singled to drive in junior Spencer Nelson. Ohio Dominican would respond in the bottom half of the third, taking advantage of a wild pitch and passed ball to score two runs and take a 2-1 lead. The Panthers added two more runs in the fourth on a two-run double to increase the lead to 4-1. GVSU trailed 5-2 entering the eighth inning before Christian Faust and Nelson each had RBI singles to trim the deficit to 5-4. However, ODU scored five runs in the bottom half of the eighth to put the game out of reach.

GVSU bounced back in game two, scoring four runs in the first inning and three runs in the second inning to build an early 7-0 lead. Ryan Blake-Jones ripped a double to right center and senior Stephen Pim recorded a two-run single up the middle in the first inning before Chandler cleared the bases with a three-run double in the second. The Lakers added a pair of runs in the third inning.

Sophomore and reigning GLIAC Freshman of the Year Rylan Peets earned the win, throwing four innings and allowing three hits, two runs and struck out two, while junior Nathan Warloget and freshman Austin Brown tossed three combined innings of scoreless ball.

VARSITY SCHEDULE MEN’S BASKETBALL

Thursday, Feb. 28, 8 p.m., vs Davenport (Senior Night)

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Thursday, Feb. 28, 6 p.m., vs Davenport (Senior Night)

MEN’S AND WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK & FIELD

Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 29-March 1, All Day, 2020 GLIAC Indoor GLIAC Championships @ Kelly Family Sports Center

BASEBALL

Sunday-Monday, March 1-March 9, varying times, Russmatt Invitational @ Auburndale and Winter Haven, Fla. (Opponents include University of Findlay, West Virginia Wesleyan, Tiffin, MinnesotaDuluth, Sioux Falls, Wayne State College and Winona State

SOFTBALL

Sunday-Saturday, March 1-March 7, varying times, Spring Trip @ Winter Haven, Fla. (Opponents include Saint Anselm, Wilmington, Cedarville, Kentucky Wesleyan, Gannon, Concordia-St. Paul, Mary, Felician, Georgian Court, Adelphi, Minnesota-Duluth and Missouri-St. Louis

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLSPORTS

SWIMMING & DIVING

GVSU Swimming & Diving remains dominant in GLIAC championships

BY ZACK GOODROW ZGOODROW@LANTHORN.COM

This past week, Feb. 19-22, the Grand Valley State University Swimming and Diving team did it again at the GLIAC championship.

For the sixth consecutive season, the Laker’s men’s team dominated the competition and took the GLIAC trophy home. They finished the tournament with a whopping score of 1,025 points, beating second place Wayne State by over 250 points. The Lakers men took home nine GLIAC titles overall, tied with Wayne State for most titles for a team.

The GVSU women’s team also had an impressive performance, coming in third during the tournament with 767.5 points.

GVSU also won six individual awards at the event claiming all but two. Head coach Andrew Boyce was named coach of the year.

Sophomore distance swimmer Jesse Goodyear took home the GLIAC’s male swimmer of the year, and senior Melina Goebel was presented the same award for the women’s team. The Lakers also won both top diving awards. Senior Makayla Karesek and junior Chirs Kelly were the top divers in the league this year. Freshman Roger Miret-Sala was named the GLIAC freshman of the year.

Day 1 The Lakers started out hot when competition began Wednesday, Feb. 19. The men finished first with 190 points. The women finished second with 205.5 points, only trailing Northern Michigan University. The women’s team continued their dominating season on the first day of the tournament. GVSU had two top finishers in the 1,000-meter freestyle. Goebel finished first with a time of 10:05.63 and freshman Neta Shiff finished third clocking in at 10:14.42.

During the first day of competition, the Lakers 200-yard medley team including sophomore Melina De Cort, freshman Delaney Wihebrink, sophomore Meda Kulbaciauskaite and freshman Claire Meeuwsen, finished second hitting the wall at 1:44.31. Senior Makayla Karasek finished third in the 3-meter diving competition with 433.35 points.

The men’s team dominated on their way to the top of the scoreboard during day one. Junior Oscar Saura-Armengol finished second in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 20.42. The men’s 200-medley relay team rose to the occasion of the tournament and swam one of their best times of the season. The relay consisting of senior Harry Shalamon, sophomore Keegan Hawkins, Saura-Armengol and sophomore Dzmitry Novikau, made the NCAA A cut with a time of 1:28.85 and will compete in the event again in the NCAA tournament.

Sophomore distance swimmer Jesse Goodyear broke another record this year. In the 1,000 yard freestyle Goodyear broke his own school record and the GLIAC record winning the title at 9:10.35. Goodyear wasn’t the only swimmer on the men’s team winning titles. Shalamon won the 200 IM with a time of 1:46.71. Hawkins finished seconds behind Shalamon coming in third, hitting the wall at 1:48.83.

TAKING THE GOLD: The GVSU men’s swimming and diving team took it home this weekend, winning the GLIAC championship for the sixth consecutive season with 1,025 points. GVL | ARCHIVES

Day 2 The Laker men’s team kept things rolling on the second day of the competition staying atop of the scoreboard with 484 points. The women’s team slipped to third with 339.5 points behind NMU and Wayne State. The team had several strong individual performances however.

Goebel finished second in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:50.17. Sophomore Samantha Laurich also finished second in the 400 IM with a time of 4:24.53. The Lakers 200-yard freestyle relay finished third in the event at 1:34.76. The team included Meeuwsen, freshman Kelly Peasley, Kulbaciauskaite, and freshman Rebecca Farber.

Grand Valley’s men’s team also performed strongly in their individual performances. Hawkins finished second in the 400-yard IM with a time of 3:52.15. In the 100-yard fly event Saura-Armengol won the GLIAC title with a time of 47.79. The Lakers took the top three spots in the event with Shalamon finishing second at 48.60 and Novikau finishing third with a time of 49.78.

Freshman Roger Miret Sala finished third in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:38.71.

The Laker relay teams also finished in the top three in their two events. In the 200-yard freestyle relay the team of Saura-Armengol, Novikau, Miret Sala and Shalamon finished second at 1:20.81. In the 400-medley relay sophomore Noah Ellis, Hawkins, Saura-Armengol and Miret Sala won the GLIAC title with a time of 3:15.44.

Day 3 The men’s team continued to dominate the competition during the third day of the event. They led all teams with a score of 725.

Goodyear again claimed another GLIAC title, this time in the 500-yard freestyle. He clocked in at 4:27.08. Saura-Armengol also won another title in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:48.26. Miret Sala finished second in the same event at 1:49.09.

Shalamon just barely missed out on his second GLIAC title during the third day of compe-

tition. He finished second in the 100-yard backstroke at 47.58 and came a decimal of a second away from the victory.

The women’s team stayed in third place after the third day of competition. The day brought their total championship score to that point at 588.5. While the team was still behind on the scoreboard, they did claim three individual GLIAC titles.

Goebel finished first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:54.98. This was her third consecutive title in the 500 at the GLIAC championship. Shiff finished third in the event at 4:59.85. In the 100-yard breaststroke Wihebrink won her first ever GLIAC title as a freshman, winning the event with a time of 1:03.54.

Laurich finished third clocking in at 1:04.02. Karasek also claimed a GLIAC title for the team. Her outstanding performance in the 1-meter diving event gave her the top score with 449.10 points.

Day 4 Saturday was the final day of the competition. The Lakers men finished what they started by taking first place with 1,025 points. Goodyear continued to break records during the fourth and final day of competition. In the milerace, 1,650 meters, Goodyear won the GLIAC title and again broke his own school record clocking and GLIAC record at 15:23.05.

“I actually didn’t know that I had broken records in the 1,000 and 1,650 and was just happy that I did a personal best,” Goodyear said.

“Finding out that I had broken the records was awesome. All my focus in the events was to just try my hardest as I knew that all the work I had put in at training all led up to these moments.

My parents also flew all the way from Sydney, 27 hours of traveling, to watch me which just topped off everything. I was so happy to see them in the stands to watch me and made me feel a bit more ready to go as well.”

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLSPORTS

A13 | SPORTS

W. BASKETBALL

PEP TALK: Giving a rallying pep talk to his players, GVSU Women’s Basketball head coach Mike Williams tries to get his team on the same page. The Lakers would go on to win both games this weekend, one against Northern Michigan and the other against Michigan Tech. Cassidy Boensch would score a personal win, shattering the old school record for recorded blocks overall. COURTESY | GVSULAKERS

Lakers overcome slow starts against Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech, as Boensch breaks school record for blocks

BY ELI ONG EONG@LANTHORN.COM

The No. 6 Grand Valley State University women’s basketball team wrapped up last week with two victories that featured slow starts followed by superior second halves.

Before the Lakers two victories, the NCAA released their first round of regional rankings for DII women’s basketball Wednesday, Feb. 19 for the 2020 season. In the rankings, GVSU was placed third in the midwest region behind two undefeated squads, Drury and Ashland, who are both 27-0.

When asked what he was looking for out of his roster as the GLIAC and NCAA tournament fast approaches, GVSU head coach Mike Williams said his focus is primarily on health.

“We gotta keep our kids fresh and continue to recover from the bumps and bruises that we have,” Williams said.

“Then we can focus on tweaking a few things here and there and continuing to play good basketball.”

GVSU overcame a slow start to earn a 53-38 win over Northern Michigan on the road Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Berry Events Center. The Lakers clinched the number two seed in the GLIAC Tournament after the win and improved to 24-2 overall and 16-2 in conference play.

Senior center Cassidy Boensch, who

finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, became the all-time leading shot blocker in program history with her 275th career block in the first quarter, surpassing 2017 GVSU Hall of Fame inductee, Julie Zeeff. The Au Gres, Michigan, native also moved into second all-time in career-rebounds after GVSU’s win against the Wildcats, leapfrogging Marie Thomas, who had 934 career rebounds. Kim Hansen currently holds the Laker record with 1,382 rebounds.

Senior guard Victoria Hedemark had a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds, while senior forward Maddie Dailey added 10 points and eight rebounds as the Lakers had three players score in double-figures.

As a team, the GVSU defense put together a strong performance, holding Northern Michigan to just 26.9 percent shooting from the field and a 28.6 percent mark from three-point range. The Lakers dominated points in the paint (34-20) and outrebounded the Wildcats 37-30.

In the first quarter, Northern Michigan traded baskets back and forth with the Lakers and took a 9-8 lead midway through the frame. The Wildcats increased their margin on a pair of free throws before the end of the first quarter and led 13-10 when the frame ended. The lead did not last long however as GVSU quickly went on a 16-0 run to begin the second quarter. The Lakers outscored NMU 20-2 in the quarter and took a 30-

15 lead into the break.

Northern Michigan cut their deficit to 13 points in the third quarter and briefly 12 points in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough, as the Lakers cruised to a victory down the stretch and overcame their 56-43 loss last season in Marquette.

GVSU again overcame a slow start for the second straight game in a row before using a dominating effort in the second half to defeat Michigan Tech, 70-49, Saturday, Feb. 22 at SDC Gym. The Lakers moved to 25-2 overall and 17-2 in conference play with one game remaining in the regular season.

Senior center Cassidy Boensch added to her back-to-back GLIAC Player of the Year resume with 30 points on 12-18 shooting from the field, nine rebounds and five blocks to pace the Lakers.

“Cassidy made great decisions, went into attack, and when she attacked she did so with as much pomp as she’s had all year, in my opinion,” Williams said.

“Sometimes they played her straight up, sometimes they ran multiple people at her and she just did a really good job of deciding when to go get it, when to kick it out, and when to move the ball around, definitely one of her best games all year.”

Dailey and senior guard Taryn Taugher each scored 11 points. Senior guard Jenn DeBoer finished the afternoon with eight points and eight rebounds including two three-point baskets which

moved her into fourth all-time in program history for made three-pointers in career, surpassing Bailey Cairnduff (167 three-pointers).

Michigan Tech jumped out to an early 11-6 lead and led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter, the second consecutive game the Lakers have trailed after the first. GVSU went on a 7-0 run during the first two minutes of the second quarter to tie the game at 17-17 and the two teams traded baskets for the rest of the half. The score was knotted at 27-27 going into halftime.

“We weren’t real clean with the ball in the first quarter and didn’t play real sharp on defense early on,” Williams said. “This time of year teams are going to come at you with energy and it was senior night (for Michigan Tech), so I thought moving forward after that first quarter I thought we did a lot better job all the way around in the second, third, and fourth quarter.”

The Lakers progressively built their advantage in the third quarter and took an eight-point lead, 52-44 heading into the fourth. GVSU outscored the Huskies 18-5 in the final frame and built a game-high 21 point lead in the closing minutes of the contest.

GVSU will host Davenport Thursday, Feb. 27 for Senior Day at 6 PM. Seniors Jenai LaPorte, Jenn DeBoer, Taryn Taugher, Victoria Hedemark, Megan Belke, Maddie Dailey, and Cassidy Boensch will all be honored prior to the tip.

FEBUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLSPORTS

A14| SPORTS M. BASKETBALL

Basketball splits U.P. road trip, remains amongst GLIAC’s elite

BY KELLEN VOSS SPORTS@LANTHORN.COM

The road trip to the Upper Peninsula is always a defining moment for the No. 21 Grand Valley State men’s basketball team, as while the weak teams get exposed in that weekend, the good teams stay resilient and come out of the trip with few scars.

This Lakers had a decent weekend, beating Northern Michigan in double overtime, 82-79, before losing to Michigan Tech, 78-70, as the Huskies clinched home-court advantage in the GLIAC tournament.

After the weekend, GVSU falls to 21-6, but still remains at the coveted second-seeded spot in the GLIAC. The Lakers certainly weren’t expecting the first game against Northern Michigan to go into double overtime, but junior Jake Van Tubbergen was certainly up for the challenge. Shooting 15 of 23 from the field, Van Tubbergen had a career-high 39 points to go along with 13 rebounds.

That point total is the most a Laker has scored since 1997, and GVSU coach Ric Wesley is proud to see the Holland, Michigan, native come into his own in the twilight of his junior year.

“The end of your junior year, you really start to come into your own,” Wesley said. “You’re figuring it all out, he knows what he’s got to do,

he knows what spots to get to and how to get his shot, getting to the line a little more. I think all those things factor in, that’s when you the maturation of a player.”

While the Lakers were able to come away with the victory in that one off the historic performance of Van Tubbergen, they were not as lucky in the second game of the week.

Even though it was a back-and-forth game for the first half, Michigan Tech always seemed to have a 6-8 point lead in the second half. Despite Van Tubbergen (27 points, 14 rebounds) and senior Jeremiah Ferguson (23 points, three assists) being solid down the stretch, it wasn’t enough to give the Lakers the victory.

“It was a back-and-forth second half, but they had a little bit of a run in there to get some separation,” Wesley said. “I didn’t feel like there was anything in particular we did, they just made shots. Jake had another outstanding game, and Ferg played well down the stretch, we just didn’t really get great play from anybody else. At a place like this, on senior day, you need more than that.”

When reflecting back on the road trip, Wesley was proud of the fight his team showed, but went on to reiterate how tough the GLIAC is to play, especially on the road.

“It was a little bit of a mixed bag,” Wesley said. “I liked our competitive spirit, our will on Thursday didn’t go away, and I thought today we had it too. We talk about it all the

STAYING RESILIENT: Though the men’s basketball team lost their game against Michigan Tech, players are hoping to get another win in before heading on the road for GLIAC. GVL | MEGHAN LANDGREN

time, this is a very balanced league. Every game is a fist fight. There’s a lot of teams playing well this time of year, and winning on the road is difficult, so there are no revelations to take away from the trip.”

GVSU has their own Senior Night Thursday, Feb. 28, as Ferguson and Ben Lubitz will be honored before the game. Wesley would love to see his guys get the win to carry positive mo-

mentum into the GLIAC tournament.

“We’re running out of opportunities, so we certainly want to get back on track,” Wesley said. “You don’t want to have losing streaks this time of the year, we’re battling for conference season and regional rankings, so we have to keep trying to improve. It’s a marathon, and we’re getting towards the end, but we’re still not there.”

FEATURE

The Sultan of Swat: Christian Negron anchors the defense for GVSU Basketball

BY KELLEN VOSS SPORTS@LANTHORN.COM

VERSATILE DEFENDER: Negron makes an average of 2.7 blocks per game, the most of any player in the GLIAC. GVL | MEGHAN LANDGREN

In 2005, Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs had a career year. He finished the year third in the NL MVP voting after amassing 199 hits, 46 homeruns and a slugging percentage of .662, essentially slapping baseballs all over Wrigley Field.

It was around that time that Christian Negron of the Grand Valley State men’s basketball fell in love with the Cubs, as after his Dad took him to Wrigley, he fell in love with the lovable losers.

“When I was about five or six, my Dad took me to a game, and I’ve been a Cubs fan my whole life,” Negron said. “I’ve been with them through thick and thin, even when they were worst in the NL Central. Obviously, I was one of the biggest supporters during the 2016 World Series run.” Much like Lee swatting away incoming fastballs with his bat, in the Laker defense, Negron’s role is to secure

the middle of the paint, protect the basket, and swat away incoming lay-up attempts against GLIAC opponents who try to drive at him.

“With my length and my size playing the ‘five’ position, I try to be a versatile defender,” Negron said. “I do a lot of things, but mostly I’m just trying to protect the rim. Every once in a while, a guy will slip inside and I’m the last line of defense, so I try to contest and put as much pressure on the defense as I can.”

Negron doesn’t just lead the Lakers with an average of 2.7 blocks per game; with that mark, he leads the entire GLIAC, tallying 0.5 blocks more than the second place player.

Negron has had a number of dominant defensive performances, but he tends to turn it up against GLIAC opponents.

He posted a season-high seven blocks against Purdue Northwest on Jan. 11 before tallying four blocks in the Jan. 23 overtime win against Michigan Tech, with three of the blocks coming in either the last minute of regulation or in the overtime period.

For a young, big man who is still learning about how to play defense while protecting the paint, Negron stresses the importance of timing for a good block.

“It’s a feel,” Negron said. “The more you contest, the more you get a feel for it, the better you’ll be with timing and developing a rhythm.”

When asked if Negron’s favorite play in basketball is a block that ignites the energy of the crowd, it was hard for him to decide between the defensive play and the dunk.

Walk into the GVSU Fieldhouse Arena for a Laker basketball game, and it’s likely you’ll see a few dunks per game from Negron. This is partially why he also leads the GLIAC with an efficient field goal percentage of .635.

LOG ON TO: www.lanthorn.com FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLSPORTS

A15 | SPORTS

TRACK & FIELD

Track & Field completes last tune-up meet before GLIAC Championships

BY HOLLY BIHLMAN HBIHLMAN@LANTHORN.COM

This past Friday, Feb. 21, the Grand Valley State track & field team ran their last meet before the GLIAC Championships begin Friday, Feb. 29 through Sunday, March 1 at the Kelly Family Sports Center. A lot of athletes had successful qualifying scores at the tune-up meet, leaving everyone ready to get mentally and physically prepared for next weekend.

Some of the highlights on the women’s side from Friday were Abbey Classes taking first place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.65, Brittany Rainey taking first in the 60-meter hurdles at 9.13, Jenna Doyle completing the high jump with a score of 1.61 earning first place, and the 4x400 relay race completed by And Kimes, Abbey Clasen, Madison Shroda and Katherine Westfall with a time of 4.10.65.

In the pole vault, Rachel Dolan took first place with a score of 3.59 tied with a Davenport athlete, followed closely by Colleen Campbell and Kaylee Koch tying at 3.44. Anglecia Floyd and Elizabeth Bruxvoort placed in first and second in the long jump with Floyd at 5.97 and Bruxvoort at 5.22, Erica Lechner took first in the shot put with a score of 14.03, and Franesha Robinson-Mitchell took first in the weight throw at 18.44.

On the men’s team, the 60-meter hurdles were dominated by GVSU athletes starting with Tyler Kirkwood and Tyler Mansfield tying for first at 8.28, followed

by Thomas Moreman taking fourth with 8.70. The 200-meter dash was completed

by Andrew McFarland taking first with a time of 18.31 while Matt McLaughlin ran the 400-meter dash with a score of 49.73, followed in second place by Jaylen Hasan with a time of 49.76.

In the 4x400 relay, Elijah Bourdeau, Matt McLauhglin, Jaylen Hasan and Noah Fuerst took first place with a time of 3.25.17. In the pole vault, Logan Clark took first with a score of 4.32 and Max Rauch came in third at 4.17. Jarek Malatestinic took second place in the long jump with a score of 5.97, Ryan Stefanko and Tommy Cwiok took second and third in the shot put at 15.31 for Stefanko and 15.31 for Cwiok, and Hunter Harding took first in the weight throw with a score of 19.85 followed by Leon White at 17.91 in second.

After last week’s multiple record breaks and successes all across the board, the athletes are starting to gain the confidence and motivation they are going to need next weekend at the championships. Nicole Sreenan, a junior this season, broke the school record for the 400-meter dash at the Akron, Ohio invitational, and then broke that record the

LEADING THE PACK: Grand Valley State leads the pack at the tune-up meet, having a lot of athletes set qualifying marks for GLIACs. GVL | MICAH HILL

following week at the Big Meet.

“It’s just kind of surreal for me still,” Sreenan said. “Honestly, I think my coach thought my original time wasn’t a good reflection of what he thought I could run, and I’m not going to lie, I haven’t really processed that I broke the school record.”

Sreenan said she looks up to the previous record holder as a friend and a teammate, so being the new record holder and having a higher score than someone she thought couldn’t be beat is something that has given her confidence and the push of motivation she needed for next week.

“I like the challenge mentally,” Sreenan said. “I always joke that I like the Nicole at track and in her uniform and competing more than I like the Nicole in real life, I feel stronger when I’m doing it.”

Dennis Mbuta broke an impressive two records in one weekend at the Big Meet with the 800-meter dash and the 4x400 relay. That makes four total just this season for Mbuta who still has one more year of running for GVSU to go.

“It felt amazing,” Mbuta said, reflecting on breaking records. “Getting the 800-meter record was the main focus for the weekend and also positioning myself well leading into championship season. I was extremely proud to be able to do it in front of a home crowd, with family and friends in the stands watching. The hardest one to break was definitely the 800m.

This was one record I’ve had my eyes on since coming to Grand Valley.”

Mbuta is looking forward to the championships feeling confident and motivated as well after the successes the past few weekends.

“I just think of (the track team as a) big family,” Mbuta said. “Ever since coming to GV everyone on the team has been welcoming of each other.”

Now that all the qualifying marks are in and all the athletes are preparing for GLIACs, the team has another year to test their abilities and see if they can beat last year’s second place in the nation title.

Their biggest competitor will be Ashland, but from the looks of the past couple of weeks they shouldn’t have a hard time taking the championships by storm.

Puzzle

6

9

1

4 1 4 3

9

7

6

8

4 7

2

5 2

9 4

2

3

4

7

1

8

go to printable-puzzles.com | Code:D113AQ

Sudoku Puzzle #D573FB

Sudoku Puzzle #D113AQ Presented by Puzzle Baron

Rated: Challenging

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 GRAND VALLEY LANTHORN @GVLSPORTS

A16 | SPORTS SOFTBALL

GVSU Softball kicks off new season with split tournament results BYROSEMARY BOOHER RBOOHER@LANTHORN.COM

Softball season has finally come for Grand Valley State, this weekend the Lakers participated in their season opening matchups. GVSU split both days of the Lewis Dome tournament on Friday Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22, making their season begin with a record of 2-2.

The Lakers played the William Jewell Cardinals and the Winona State Warriors on Friday then moved to face off against the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars and the Lindenwood Lions the next day.

The Cardinals were the first team that the Lakers faced up against this season, where they ultimately lost 4-3. Freshman Ashley Platek had her pitching debut for the Lakers where she struck out seven players and had five scoreless frames in a row. Nikoma Holmen hit her first home run of the season as well, knocking in two runs in the bottom of the fifth. However, these performances would not be enough to overcome the 4 runs that the Cardinals had already scored in the first two innings.

The second match-up on Friday was against the Warriors, where GVSU was

able to secure their first win of the season. The Lakers started off strong with a homerun in the top of the first inning from Lydia Goble. Holmen had two RBIs this game to help lead the team with scoring. The freshman sophomore Hannah Beatus had 11 strikeouts, a career high for her during her first game back on the mound. The Lakers were able to end the game winning 5-1.

The first day of the tournament started with GVSU winning against the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars with the score of 8-1. The Lakers had a quick start in the game with Holmen, Globe and Taylor Rieger knocking in two runs each, two of these being from a homerun from Reiger this being her first of the season.

Kayla Plastiak and Kelcie LaTour were also able to add a run each to the Lakers score. Hannah Beatus was able to secure her second win with 10 strikeouts, in total this weekend she pitched 21 strikeouts over the past two days.

The final game of the day was against the Lindenwood Lions in a tight game.

The score was scoreless for both teams until the eighth inning where GVSU would break through and score their first run, which was quickly answered by Lin-

SPLIT START: After kicking off the season with two wins and losses at the Lewis Dome tournament, players begin preparation for their Spring Break tournament in Florida. COURTESY | GVSULAKERS

denwood scoring during the bottom of the inning as well. The game would stay tied until the bottom of the 10th inning where the Lions were able to send another run in, ending the game 2-1.

“We need to clean up our defense a

bit, we made some key errors that hurt us,” said GVSU coach Dana Callihan. “I was very pleased with our pitching. Both pitchers threw very well and kept up in both games. We just didn’t get some timely hits when we needed them.”