<ompetition for indoor track began last Friday night with Carleton hosting St. Olaf College and Hamline University. It was a spectacular first outing for the team with lots of positives all around, including a number of events won, a school record, and a number of personal bests.
Megan Erlandson ’12 broke the school record twice in the pole vault. She vaulted 10 2 to tie for first in the event. The mark also puts her at second in the conference according to the latest honor rolls.
Erlandson wasn’t the only Knight reaching new heights that evening, however. Kyla Walter ’11 improved her best height in the high jump, clearing 5′ 1″ to win the event. Teammate Kelly Lovett ’11 took third in the event, also establishing a new best.
Lovett probably felt a bit better about her performance in an event she’s actually competed in before, the shot put. She took third in that event as well, improving her indoor best. Also, in the shot put, Rachel Gottesman ’12 improved her overall best distance by over a meter. Kao Sutton ’14 and Kelly Soderstrom ’11 also turned in successful performances in the ring, making their Carleton debuts.
Moving on from the field events, nobody felt like long or triple jumping but the Knights did have a hurdler. Walter took third in the event, glad to be back over the barriers after a struggle with her shins.
Also running short was Gottesman in the 55-meter dash. Taking on a slightly longer distance, albeit an unusual one, was Alex Dunn ’11 in the 300m. The conference is talking about resurrecting the event, so coach Donna Ricks decided it would be a good idea to have one. Plus, it will ease Dunn into the 400. Dunn’s performance was spectacular enough that she could easily have run the extra 100.
The next shortest distance any Carls ran was the 800m. That was quite a race. Kaitlin Randolph 12 set an ambitious pace, daring anyone to go with her. Nobody did, but Haley Johnson 13 stayed within distance. As they went into the last lap, Johnson started steadily closing the gap and used the 200m distance to edge Randolph by 6/10 of a second to take the win. Those two are quite the forces to contend with.
Another is Simone Childs-Walker ’12. She won the mile in 5:04 plus change, just missing the NCAA provisional qualifying mark for the national meet. The Ole who went out with her did not stay.
Carleton was strong in the mile, with Sarah Trautman ’13 taking fourth and Alison Smyth ’12 taking fifth. Trautman is transforming into quite the speedy short distance runner. Taylor Ffitch ’12 was seventh in the event. And it would be a crime to ignore the accomplishment of Carrie Harshbarger ’13, who improved her best in the mile by over 10 seconds.
Harshbarger took to the track again in the 1000m run, taking third from the slow heat. She was beaten by her teammate Trautman, who took second in the event, but she probably could have won it if shed been fresh.
While being fresh may have helped Trautman, the prospect of Childs-Walker being fresh for her second event is frightening. She won the 3k in 10:07, a ridiculous time for the first meet of the season.
This summary doesn’t even include all the technical improvements made during the meet.
Most of the Carls are taking the weekend off, although a few will be competing this evening at St. Olaf. Next week the team will host another meet at the Rec Center, hopefully with a few healed athletes competing.
-Alison Smyth is a member of the womens track and field team.
