<turday, the men’s track and field team competed in its first full-squad meet of the season, the Hamline Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Charlie Gamble ’10 captured the Knights’ only individual event victory of the afternoon, winning the 5,000 meters in 15:05.96. His time is the fastest in the conference this season.
The 2008 MIAC indoor champion at 5,000, Gamble took the lead for good before the first lap was complete. Breaking away from the field, the senior covered the first kilometer in 2:57 to open up a lead in excess of 30 meters.
Augsburg teammates Brent Hanglund and Victor Sanchez shared the lead in the chase pack. At the 3-kilometer mark, Haglund attempted to close the gap on Gamble, but the Carleton senior would not relinquish any of his advantage.
Haglund finished second in 15:16.56, over 10 seconds behind Gamble, who won the 1,500 meter event at the St. John’s Invitational in his only other race of the season.
In the 800-meter run, Michael Sanders ’10 finished 3rd in a field consisting primarily of Division I runners from the University of Minnesota.
After running the first lap in a modest 57 seconds, Sanders fought the backstretch wind to stop the clock in 1:55.76, his fastest outdoor half-mile and the third-best time in the MIAC in 2010.
Like Sanders, John Davis ’11 finished third behind one MIAC foe and one University of Minnesota athlete. Davis completed the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:37.59, just eight seconds shy of his personal best, which earned all-MIAC honors in 2009.
Also like Sanders, Davis’ time puts him third on the MIAC performance list, trailing only Tyler Iverson of St. Thomas and Hamline’s Andy Johnson, who is somehow really good at the steeplechase despite consistently underperforming in every other event.
A swarm of fellahs raced the 1,500 meters Saturday, led by the outstanding collegiate debut of Aaron Hirsh ’13. The Cleveland, Ohio native surged at the 700-meter mark and ran an outstanding third lap en route to a 4:10.12 clocking.
Not far behind, Chris Marshall ’10 held off Kian Flynn ’12 as both ran stellar openers, 4:12.35 and 4:12.53. A former Taft High classmate traveled all the way from Otis, Oregon to watch Flynn race, and may also have visited Hamline University while she was there.
Bobby Davis ’13 won the third section of the 1,500 meters convincingly in 4:16.91. After the race, Hamline meet directors apologized for not putting Davis in the second heat.
Michael Knudson ’11 ran an unbelievable personal best 4:26.71, and Reid McMurry ’13 opened with 4:27.04. Some speculate that Jon Kittaka ’13 and Chas Karch ’13 might actually be the same person after the pair of freshmen once again finished right together, both running 4:28.
In the 110-meter high hurdles, Ty Martin finished 7th in 15.84 despite a subpar start, which may be attributed to not having the expert block-holding of Marshall, who kept Martin’s blocks at the St. John’s Invitational.
Martin ran 15.71 in the prelims, and returned to the track to run an excellent season-opener in the 400 hurdles, clocking 59.28.
The Knight relay squads ran well, and the 4×400 team of James Morrissey ’12, Joe Concannon ’13, Jordan Butler ’13 and Sanders all managed to wear the same shorts as they finished 4th in 3:30.45.
In the field, Joey Camarda ’13 bettered his seed by 20 centimeters and cleared 4.10 (13’ 5.25”) in the pole vault to finish 7th. Evan Franco ’10 finished 8th with the same height.
After competing in the long jump and 400 meters indoors, Robert Wakely ’12 could not wait to get back to his specialty event, the javelin throw. Wakely threw a PR 42.12 meters to finish 7th in his first competition of the season.
The Knights were without the devastating finishing kick of Colin Sinclair ’11, who was recovering from a foot infection he suffered while in New Zealand winter term. Ben Parks ’11 did not compete due to shin splints, and Famous Johnson ’12 was inactive due to a mandatory Geology field trip.
Tomorrow, Carleton will host its only home meet of the season, the Carleton Relays. This event is one of the biggest invitational meets in the state, and perennially features outstanding competition. The Relays begin at 10 am at Laird Stadium.
-Chris Marshall is a member of the Men’s track team.