SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – Lake Superior State Track and Field student-athlete Roger Willford has been named the Madigan/Pingatore Insurance Athlete of the Week, as announced by the Lake Superior State athletic department on Monday.
Willford, a senior from Gladwin, Michigan who is majoring in fisheries and wildlife management, earned the honor after helping the men's track and field team to a seventh-place finish at the 2019 GLIAC Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday and Sunday at the Saginaw Valley State University Fieldhouse in University Center, Michigan. The Laker men earned 21 team points, which is the most at the GLIAC Indoor Championships since the 2014 season when they garnered 45.50 points. The Laker men's team last tallied 20 points at the 2016 indoor conference championships.
Willford earned 10 points in the meet as he placed third in the heptathlon with a personal-best 4,871 points and fifth in the pole vault with a cleared height of 4.48 meters. The 4,871 points in the heptathlon is an NCAA Division II Provisional Qualifier and is currently the 38th-best performance in NCAA Division II this indoor season. His previous personal best of 4,761 points was set earlier this season at the SVSU Holiday Open on Dec. 7-8. Willford's performance in the heptathlon is the best by a Laker since the 2013-14 season when Justin Balczak and Kaleb Schweiger recorded 5,289 points (Kent State Golden Flash Gala) and 5,134 points (NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships), respectively.
It is the first time that Willford has been named the Madigan/Pingatore Insurance Athlete of the Week.
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The Lake Superior State men's and women's track and field teams begin their outdoor seasons at the Blizzard Buster on March 23 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
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