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Rachele Schulist, who enjoyed a remarkable cross country season with Michigan State, returns near home Saturday for a dual against Michigan at Grand Valley State's Kelly Family Sports Center.
(Michigan State Athletic Communications)
ALLENDALE, MI - Rachele Schulist, who enjoyed a remarkable cross country season, heads indoors and into familiar stomping grounds Saturday with her Michigan State teammates for a dual against University of Michigan.
The Big 10 Conference rivals meet at 1 p.m. at Kelly Family Sports Center on the campus of Grand Valley State, which almost makes it a home meet for Schulist. The redshirt sophomore ran there once while at Zeeland West High School and trains there when visiting home.
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FULL TRACK DAY AT GVSU
The dual between Michigan and Michigan State is part of three day-long events at Kelly Family Sports Center.
Following the dual, which begins at 1 p.m., the Gazelle Sports/Adidas Elite Mile high school race takes place at roughly 4 p.m., and features some of the top runners in the country. That includes Grant Fisher of Grand Blanc. Fisher, with a personal best of 4:02, will be competing for the first time since winning his second consecutive Foot Locker National Championship. Also, Audrey Belf of Birmingham Seaholm will pursue her second win in a row at the race.
At 5:30 p.m., the GVSU Quad Meet begins. Some of the top Division II programs will be on hand. For the women, that includes No. 3 Lewis, No. 9 Grand Valley and No. 11 Lincoln (Mo.). On the men's side, there is No. 4 Grand Valley State, No. 8 Lewis and No. 60 Lincoln (Mo.).
Live stats during the day will be available from the Grand Valley State website.
"It's almost like the hometown thing with this," she said. "That makes it comfortable, and it's against Michigan, which will be fun. We're competitors, but we respect each other."
It will be the first indoor meeting between the two programs since 2013 at Grand Valley. Last year's dual was cancelled due to inclement weather. Two years ago, Michigan won the men's (88-74) and women's (89-73) meets.
Coming into this event - and early into the indoor season - on the men's side, Michigan State is ranked No. 25 and Michigan is No. 78 based on USTFCCA poll. On the women's side, Michigan is No. 15 and Michigan State 23rd.
Schulist looks forward to the event, and not just because of the location. She has been on a tear dating back to the cross country season, and it has carried over to the start of indoors.
Schulist, who in late November helped the Spartans to their first national championship in cross country with a fourth-place finish (19 minutes, 54.30 seconds in a 6K race), made her indoor season debut last week at the Notre Dame Invitational. She ran the mile and won in 4:42.43.
"Last year I ran a 4:49 at that race (to finish third) and I don't necessarily consider myself a miler, especially at this level," she said. "So I was just hoping that if I can get under that would be really cool. So to PR by seven seconds, yeah, I was about ready to pass out over that."
While Schulist looks at the two seasons separately, success in cross country has built her confidence heading indoors. Following the race, she was a finalist for the Honda Sports Award, given to the top female athlete in Division I, and was featured in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of Sports Illustrated.
"It's given me more confidence but it's not like a huge change, either," she said. "At the end of the day, I had to work - and our whole team had worked - really hard to be national champions. So it's not like everything changes now. You have that level of training and intensity. It's not an adjustment then, but just the expectation to keep pushing."
She is entered in the 3,000 for the dual. It will be her first effort of the indoor season at that distance, but she's also fared well in it. Last year, she won the 3,000 in back-to-back meets at the Meyo Invitational (9:22.35) and SPIRE Indoor Invitational (career-best 9:06.85).
Pete Wallner covers sports for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at pwallner@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.