Mike Veeenendaal clears the high jump bar during the pentathlon. Photo by Luke Shanno
SETH DRURY ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
The men’s and women’s track and field teams had a successful dual against Augustana (Ill.), this past weekend in the Hoover Fieldhouse and Track as the men had six first-place finishers and the women had 15.
The women also had two provisional qualifiers.
“It’s the early part of our season but I think we did a very good job across the board in the field events and the running events. It was good to get everyone in competition especially our distance runners in competition,” head coach Marcus Newsom said.
Faith Burt provisionally qualified in the 55-meter dash as she ran a time of 7.17 seconds, which is just short of automatically qualifying. Her time also set a new track record.
Burt also competed in the 200-meter dash and once again set a new track record running to a first-place finish with a time of 25.92 seconds. Right behind her was Jenny Kordick and Nevada
Morrison who finished second and third respectively.
Erika Menning grabbed top honors in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.57.
In the 600-meter run Hannah Baker set a new track record with a time of 1:36.49, Christine Marchik finished behind Baker in second.
The Kuiken twins controlled the middle distance races as Amanda won the 800-meter run and Jennifer won the 1000-meter run. In the mile, Jennifer held off sister Amanda by .02 seconds to take first.
Emily van Oosbree ran a time of 10:46.49 in the 3000-meter run which was good enough for first place. Kelsey Steffens provisionally qualified in the 55-meter hurdles in the prelims as Brittany Thomas and Steph Haberer took first and second respectively in the finals.
The field events went Wartburg’s way as Amber Axon and Alicia Ford took first and second in the high jump as they both finished with a jump of 1.57 meters.
In the long jump, Hannah Baker won her second event of the day as Skye Morrison finished second.
Pam Rodgers swept the weight throw and the shot put as Brittany Melloy and Becca Fagerlind finished first and second respectively in the pentathlon.
Akeya Aimable, competing in the triple jump for the first time took home 1st with a jump of 11.13 meters.
“Akeya is one of our better athletes and Coach Sage has wanted Akeya to try the triple jump for the past couple of years and it was easily a highlight of the meet. They only worked for a little bit this week and already her performance puts her at number two in the top 10 so who knows where she might end up with a little more work,” Newsom said.
The men’s dual was highlighted by six top place finishes. In the 800-meter run, Ben Hackbart and Luke Appleton placed first and second respectively.
Drew Shradel took home first 55-meter hurdles and Damoan Lott jumped 6.42 meters which was good enough for first place in the long jump.
John Kuckelman swept the throwing events throwing 14.16 meters in the shot put and 15.81 meters in the weight throw.
“I threw well in both. I didn’t win the shot until my last throw and the weight is my better event and I knew I just needed to win that because I didn’t feel like there was a lot of competition,” Kuckelman said.
The indoor track and field team will compete again this Saturday at the Hoover Field House and
Track when the Knights host the Wartburg Indoor Select, which is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
“It is going to be really good competition with UW-La Crosse, and UW-Platteville and other teams who have all finished in the top 10 in the past years whether it’s in indoor or outdoor either way it is going to be one of the premiere meets in Div. III and have a pretty big outcome on the season,” Newsom said.