Ferris State To Host Annual Home Track Invitational Saturday

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's and women's outdoor track and field teams will host the annual Bulldog Invitational Saturday, April 6, at FSU's Top Taggart Field in Big Rapids, Mich.

The event, which serves as the school's official home meet of the season, kicks off at 11 a.m. (ET) with the start of the field event competition. Running events will get underway at 12 p.m. (ET) with the women's 3,000-meter run participants slated to hit the track first.

The 1,600-meter relay will be the day's final event. All running events are timed finals. The meet is open to the public.

In addition to Ferris State, the non-scoring invitational field will include a variety of student-athletes from both West Michigan schools and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC)-member institutions.

The Bulldog Invitational was held on an annual basis prior to the 1987 season. Ferris then reinstated the annual event by hosting their first home track meet in 12 seasons on April 10, 1999. The meet has been held each season since then with the exception of the 2000 and 2006 outdoor campaigns when the event was cancelled due to weather.

The Bulldog Invitational is the only scheduled FSU home meet for the 2013 season.

Top Taggart Field serves as the site for the Bulldogs' home track and field meets. The stadium, which also serves as home to FSU's varsity football program, was dedicated October 1957 in honor of the school's first official varsity football coach and his contributions to the institution.

The facility underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in the spring of 1998, which involved the installation of a 400-meter, eight-lane track with a brick red urethane surface surrounding a top-of-the-line artificial turf playing surface. Also, renovations were completed at that time for two shot put circles, two long and triple jump pits, and a pair of pole vault boxes. The facility also includes the three-story Wheeler Pavilion, which was added in 2001. A new Mondo Ecofill artificial-turf playing surface was installed to replace the previous field in 2008.

In addition to Top Taggart Field, throwing events will also be held just south of the stadium on university practice fields.

The Bulldog men's and women's teams officially opened the 2013 outdoor season by taking part in the annual Raleigh Relays hosted by North Carolina State University this past weekend (March 29-30) in Raleigh, N.C. The event was a non-scoring team competition.

For more information on the meet, please visit this link:
Bulldog Invitational Information