ADRIAN, Mich. - Later this week in Albion, Michigan, the Adrian College track and field team will compete in the 2022 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Outdoor Championships (MIAA), hosted by Albion College.

The Bulldogs enter this year's championship meet ranked fifth in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's (USTFCCCA) Conference Rating Index on both the men's and women's side. This is one position higher than each team's sixth-place finishes at last season's MIAA Outdoor Championships.

Individually, the black and gold come into this week with 16 different athletes ranked inside the top 10 of the league's Performance List in their respective events, including two who are set to defend their titles from 2021.

One of those title-holders is Derek Plitt. The senior, and two-time 2022 indoor All-American, is the defending champion of the 100-meter dash, and is in position to capture gold in not only that event, but the 200-meter sprint as well. He will enter this week with the top seed on the MIAA's Performance List in both races. If Plitt can successfully defend his title in the 100-meter dash, he would become the first repeat-winner of the event in program history, and the first in conference history since Hope's Cameron Lampkin won in 2010 and 2011.

As for the 200-meter sprint, it has been 19 years since Ryan Seipke secured Adrian's only first-place finish in the event, and Plitt will be aiming to best his efforts from 2021, in which he placed second by 0.15 seconds.

On the women's side, Cailey Beaudoin, who won conference-gold in the high jump back at the indoor finals in February, is poised to repeat in that same event outside. The sophomore is rolling off of a personal-best performance of 1.69 meters at last weekend's Concordia Legacy Meet, and cane become the first repeat-winner of the event in program history since LouAnn Jessup won in 1986 and 1987.

Also in the high jump, Weston Kvalevog ranks second entering the championships, the same placement he earned in 2021. The junior is also seeded inside the top ten in the 400-meter dash, an event he set a personal-best in at the Concordia Legacy Meet.

Emme Koutz (800-meter dash), Robert Diebold (5,000 and 10,000-meter races), Brett Carlisle (10,000-meter race), Dana Avery (100-meter hurdles and 400-meter hurdles), Joshua Light (110-meter hurdles and javelin), Brendan Baker (400-meter hurdles), Asher Cousino (400-meter hurdles), Ciara Heslet (high jump), Cameron Overmyer (pole vault), Nolan Breithaupt (long jump), Amanda Mathews (long jump and triple jump), Bryanna Carey (shot put, discus, hammer and javelin), Steven Posa (discus) and Audrey Salenbien (javelin) are all ranked inside the top conference's top ten in respective events entering this week.

The 2022 MIAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships begin on Thursday, May 5 at 12 p.m., then continue on Friday, May 6 at 10 a.m.