<men’s track and field team has been quite busy over the last week, and the fun won’t end today! Last Saturday the team headed over to Gustavus Adolphus to compete. After the beautiful drive, the team arrived to a windy hilltop and proceeded to attack the competition.
The highlights of the meet definitely came from the sprinters, as Kelsey Donald ’10 lowered her season’s best times in the 100 and 200. In the 200 she ran the fastest time that she has in years. Brooke Granowski ’13, Kyla Walter ’11, Haley Johnson ’13 and Claire Karbon ’13 all bested their seed times as well. That is quite impressive.
Also bettering her seed time was Lara Silverman ’11 in the 800m run, which is quite excellent, considering the wind. In the longest event the Knights competed in Laura Roach ’10 took top honors and Kaitlin Randolph ’12 made her much anticipated debut, placing third with quite a gap between her and fourth place.
Off the track, Walter took third in the high jump and Amy Elson ’10 took fifth in the triple jump, breaking 34 feet. The other Walter, Elissa ’13 improved her seed distance in the shot put, putting the shot over 30 feet. Jessa Youso ’13 threw the discus over 100 feet and, on the same day, bettered her javelin throw by nearly 2 meters.
Even with all these outstanding performances on Saturday, more was to come on Wednesday night at the Tommie Twilight competition. The day was slightly breezy, calming down as the night went on, but the performances were still there. The meet kicked off with some field events, as Jill Merkle ’12 jumped over 16 feet in the long jump and later threw nearly 100 feet in the javelin. Also in the javelin, Kelly Lovett ’11 placed second, improving upon her throws from Gustavus. In another throwing event, the shot put, Elissa Walter threw three feet farther than she did at Gustavus, continuing to make tremendous improvement in the event. Her sister, Kyla, jumped 1.50 meters, demonstrating consistency.
The first Knight on the track was Sameena Ahmed, dropping 20 seconds off her best in the 3000m steeplechase, making a strong case for her qualification for the MIAC Championships. After that came the 1500, with Laura Roach ’10 taking second in an impressive 4:40, besting Simone Childs-Walker ’12, who took third 4 seconds later. Also impressive in the 1500m was Nikki Reich ’10, lowering her season’s best by 6 seconds after tweaking her hamstring last week. Other impressive performances came in the 800, as Randolph, Johnson, and Karbon all ran solidly despite the wind. Also, Laurel Orr ’13 ran a strong 5k, breaking the 21 minute mark for the first time.
One cannot ignore the accomplishments of Carleton’s 4×4 relay either, as the distance runners took the track by storm to avoid finishing last. The goal was met.
As mentioned earlier, that was not the end of competition for the team this week. Yesterday and today Amy Elson ’10 is competing in the last heptathlon of her collegiate career right here in our very own Laird Stadium. I recommend that you go watch her, as the competition continues today at noon.
-Alison Smyth is a member of the Women’s track team.