The Ferris State men’s and women’s track and field teams each had one mem­ber at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M.

Representing Ferris at the national indoor cham­pi­onship meet were men’s senior pole-vaulter Greg Burns and women’s junior dis­tance run­ner Tina Muir.

Burns received NCAA Division II All-American hon­ors by plac­ing sixth over­all with a career-best of 16 feet and 3.25 inches. This was Burns’ first time com­pet­ing in a national cham­pi­onship and he qual­i­fied by post­ing a school record of 16 feet and 3.25 inches at the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference Indoor Championships on March 27.

Burns adds his name to a short list of Ferris Division II All-Americans in men’s track and field in recent years. He is only the third ath­lete since 1993 to claim All-American hon­ors in either the indoor or out­door national events.

“Going into the meet, my plans were def­i­nitely to be All-American and I was pumped to get the chance to try,” said Burns.

Burns says he isn’t fin­ished yet and has his eyes set on jump­ing even higher than the record he’s placed at Ferris. He hopes his hard work con­tin­ues to pay off.

“I know I can jump higher,” said Burns. “I can’t wait to try and then make it to out­door nationals.”

Muir, in her second-straight appear­ance at an indoor national meet, came in 13^th out of 14 run­ners with a time of 17:51.84 min­utes. Muir came into the national com­pe­ti­tion with a sixth best time of 16:51.11 out of the 14 run­ners who par­tic­i­pated. Muir received All-American acco­lades last year at the out­door national championships.

Muir raced through an injury dur­ing indoor nation­als, which hin­dered her abil­ity to per­form at her peak.

“I had hoped on per­form­ing bet­ter and I am sure that I could have placed much higher than I did, but I had been deal­ing with an injury that was dic­tat­ing my train­ing,” said Muir.

Muir hopes to over­come her injury and plans to pre­pare for the future with hopes of reach­ing more indoor and out­door national meets.

“I def­i­nitely hope to make indoor nation­als next year and I also hope to place higher,” said Muir. “I also aim to rep­re­sent Ferris at the Outdoor National Championships, but my cur­rent plans involve get­ting healthy and allow­ing my body time to heal itself.”

The Bulldogs will be back on the track on March 26–27 at the North Carolina State Raleigh Relays. n