<oor Track & Field Championships begin today at St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota. The Knights send a strong contingent of 22 competitors.
Charlie Gamble ’10 will run the 5,000 meters as the event’s third seed. At the St. Mary’s invitational April 24th, Gamble ran 14:51.75 to set the track record.
That record will be put to the test at 3:30 tomorrow when Gamble will face three other runners who have run sub-15 this season: Bethel’s Dan Greeno at 14:35, St. Thomas’ Ben Sathre at 14:44 and Concordia’s Tom Sederquist at 14:57.
Gamble has not run track since the indoor season in 2009, when he won MIAC titles at 3,000 and 5,000 meters in addition to setting a personal best of 14:38.
Ty Martin ’11 is the fourth seed in the 110-meter high hurdles, having run 15.38 this season. Bethel’s Taylor Ferda is easily the top entrant at 14.41, Martin could claim his first All-MIAC citation with a top-3 finish. Martin is also the seventh-ranked 400-meter hurdler. The Knights’ hurdle squad is five-deep at the conference meet, as the late Joe Concannon ’13 and Mike Austin ’13 will both double, Dylan Bothun ’11 will run the 110-meter race and Kyle Burkhardt ’10 will contest the 400s.
Indoors, Michael Sanders ’10 was the Knights lone all-conference performer, finishing third in the 800 meters. Sanders will face a strong half-mile field today, as seven MIAC athletes have broken 1:56 this year.
In his preliminary heat, Sanders will battle MIAC leader Max Hanson of Gustavus, whose 1:50.31 clocking is second-fastest in Division III this year and an NCAA automatic qualifier.
John Davis ’11 was last year’s runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. With ten entrants seeded under 9:50, this year’s event is deep. Davis is the sixth seed, though top-seeded Tyler Iverson of St. Thomas has run less than one second faster than the Eden Prairie native’s PR.
What does the scouter say about how many meters Bobby Davis ’13 will run tonight? It’s over 9,000! That’s because Bobby will race the meet’s longest event, the 10,000 meters.
Davis the Younger will look to take a significant bite out of his PR of 33:18, and he will face stiff competition from 19 MIAC foes.
The 1,500 meters features four Fellahs. Aaron Hirsh ’13 and Kian Flynn ’13 will race in this afternoon’s first preliminary section, while Chris Marshall ’10 and Josh Campbell ’10 will run in the second heat.
All four Knights have a chance to qualify for Saturday’s finals, and they will likely face some garbage tactics from other runners.
Carleton will also look for points from three relays— the 4×100, 4×400 and 4×800.
Six Knights will compete in the field this weekend. The javelin throw begins at 2 pm today, and Mark Skoglund ’12 and Robert Wakeley ’12 look to hurl their pointy sticks really far.
Lenny Dee-rector Jameson Siegert ’11 and Dylan Cheever ’13 will jump high beginning at 4:30. Cheever finished fourth in the high jump indoors.
Neither will jump quite as high as Evan Franco ’10 will tomorrow, though he will cheat by using a long fiberglass pole. Franco’s parents will be at the meet, and he is the only person on the track team named Evan.
C.J. Dale ’13 will contest the triple jump tomorrow morning. He needed every inch of his 41-2 ¼ qualifying mark, as he was the last triple jumper admitted into the competition.
Results from the meet will be posted live at raceberryjam.com.
-Chris Marshall is a member of the Men’s track and field team.