<rlie Gamble ’10 highlighted an exciting day of track and field Saturday with a blazing 8:25.44 performance in the 3000-meter run. Gamble ran with Hamline’s Brandon Gleason, who finished 13th at the NCAA National Championships in cross country, before kicking past the Piper star for the win in the last 200 meters.
Gamble’s covered the first 2400 meters of the race with perfectly even splits, making his blistering 4:30 mile pace look effortless. After the pace slowed with three laps to go, he moved to the lead, only to be overtaken again by Gleason.
Then the pace accelerated further, and Gamble refused to go away, running 28.9 seconds for his final lap and a 1.99-second victory. His time is not only the fastest in the MIAC so far this season, but the fastest recorded by a MIAC runner since the event was first contested at the conference meet in 1999.
In addition to winning the race, Gamble brought St. Olaf’s Tostrud Center 3000-meter record back to Carleton. Matt Hooley ’04 held the record at 8:32.21 until last year, when St. John’s Chris Erichsen ran 8:28.25.
Two-time All-American Tom Ballinger ’09 was a two-time winner Saturday, taking both the 55-meter hurdles (8.17 seconds) and the 400-meter dash (51.34). Ballinger added a runner-up finish in the 200 meters, running 23.40 and finishing .06 seconds behind Nick Cesarek ’09.
Cesarek had already finished second in the 55-meter dash in 6.72, the second-fasterst time of his career.
Kane Bechstein ’09 won the pole vault at 4.12 meters, and finished second in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.60 seconds. Dylan Bothun ’11 and Jameson Siegert ’11 were close behind to finish off Carleton’s 1-2-3-4 sweep in that event. Siegert also finished second in the high jump and third in the long jump.
In the 1-mile run, Colin Sinclair ’11 needed all of his devastating finishing kick to sneak past Tom Brenner ’09. The Knight milers finished third and fourth in 4:38.06 and 4:38.20, respectively. Kian Flynn ’12 ran 4:48.42 for sixth in his first collegiate track race.
In all, the Knights amassed 78.5 points for a third-place finish, behind St. Olaf and Hamline. They will head back across the river tonight, where they will compete in the St. Olaf Open beginning at 5 p.m.