November 16, 2017
Saginaw Valley State University student Taylor Taraski's study on the mobility of Division II football players won high praise at a recent regional sports medicine conference.
Taraski, an exercise science major from Oxford, Michigan, won the Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation award for her presentation, “Movement Deficiencies in Division II Male Football Athletes as it Related to Class and Position.” He presented Saturday, Nov. 11 at the Midwest chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine conference in Grand Rapids.
Taraski's study involved examining 43 student-athletes by measuring their physical performance during a series of exercises. The project concluded that identifying deficiencies in physical performance would allow the training protocol to be used to improve performance.
Jeremy Knous, SVSU associate professor of kinesiology at SVSU, served as Taraski's faculty advisor.
Three other SVSU exercise science students also presented their research projects at the conference.
Kiersten Mead of Saginaw discussed her project, “Caregiver Physical Activity and Nutrition Discussions According to BMI.” Anya Odabasic from Midland described her research on “Sedentary Behavior Patterns in Pregnant Women”. Ashlyn Swafford of Tekonsha presented her paper, “Examining the Relationships Between Pregnancy Symptoms and Gestational Weight Gain.”
Faculty mentors for these students were Meghan Baruth, assistant professor of health sciences; Samantha Deere, assistant professor of kinesiology. and Becca Schlaff, associate professor of kinesiology.
