<f the Hearts took place last Saturday at the Rec Center and it certainly lived up to the hype. The Knights used a number of impressive performances to take third in the meet out of five teams.
The now-familiar name of Megan Erlandson ’12 shows up once more, as she broke her own school record in the pole vault again, this time vaulting 10’ 8.25” to win the event. Kaitlin Randolph ’12 was another event winner for the Knights, taking first in the 1000m run by thee seconds. Randolph’s training partner, Haley Johnson ’13, took third in the 800m, setting a new personal record time of 2:21. Teammate Sarah Trautman ’13 finished fourth in the event, dipping under 2:30 in her first 800 ever despite having a fever on Tuesday.
The next shortest event, the 600m dash, saw another third place for the Knights. Alex Dunn ’11 ran impressively, going under 1:46 even though she has never competed at that distance before. Dunn came back later to run her best time in the 200m since high school. Also in the 200 were Maggie Sullivan ’14, Kyla Walter ’11, and Sami Kemper ’14. These women had strong performances, just as they had earlier in the 55m hurdles.
Walter and Kemper also demonstrated their skills in the long and high jump. Walter tied for second in the high jump while Kemper cleared 4’8” after measuring out an approach for the first time on Thursday. Kemper also flew far enough to take third in the long jump.
In the other field events, the throwers had a tremendous day. Kelly Soderstrom ’11 took fourth in the weight throw. Kao Sutton ’14 improved her put by a meter and a half to take fourth in the shot put. Elissa Walter ’13 also threw much farther than she had been, adding over half a meter to her best distance.
While Rachel Gottesman ’12 could not participate in the shot due to an injured shoulder, she was allowed to take out some aggression in the 55m dash, outrunning a competitor.
Another teammate who knows all about injury, Rachel Kittaka ’12, had a successful performance in the mile run, winning her heat and dropping her season’s best by six seconds. Her training partner, Lauren Chow ’14, also had a tremendous day, ignoring the odd tactics of the Norse to drop 12 seconds off her 3k time. Also in that race, Emily Fritz-Endres ’11 went under 11 minutes in her first 3k ever. The other long event, the 5k, went well, with alum Laura Roach ’10 taking the victory. She was followed by the duo of Alison Smyth ’12 and Taylor Ffitch ’12.
Also running a 5k that day was Simone Childs-Walker ’12, who competed at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa. She ran well enough to be named MIAC Athlete of the Week, earning an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying mark while kindly letting her teammates back in Northfield run a 5k without getting lapped this season.
The Knights’ next competition is tomorrow at the University of Minnesota’s Parent’s Day Open. Many of the MIAC schools will be there and the Knights will be tweaking their performances so that they can peak at the MIAC Indoor Championships in two weeks.
Alison Smyth is a member of the women’s track team.