<rleton men’s track and field team competes in a variety of different weather conditions each spring, but meets at aptly named Gustavus Adolphus College tend to be the gustiest.
Last Saturday was no exception, as the Knights fought off strong winds and unseasonably cold temperatures at the Lee Krough Invitational in St. Peter, Minn. Saturday was a not a day for good times, but the Carls still gave their best.
Led by two first-years, Marcus Huderle and Jacob Hoerger, Carleton won two events. Huderle ran a negative split to place first in the 800 meters, running 2:02.8 and winning a fantastic battle down the stretch to outlean a Minnesota-Morris runner at the line.
Hoerger, meanwhile, won the 1500 meters in a wind-slowed 4:24, exactly one second ahead of second-place finisher Aaron Hirsh ’13.
C.J. Dale ’13 and Josh Estes ’14 took second and third in the long jump, jumping 6.05 and 5.66 meters respectively. In the triple jump, Cooper Dodds ’13 jumped a personal best 11.34 meters.
Four Carls threw pointy sticks. Robert Wakely ‘12 led the way in the javelin, throwing 42.90 meters for third place. Adrian Carpenter ’14 was next, placing fourth with a throw of 41.33 meters, while Jordan Soteros ’14 was fifth with a throw of 40.74 meters and Dale was seventh with a throw of 37.36 meters. Soteros also cleared a season best 4.05 meters in the pole vault.
Dylan Cheever ’13 and Lobo James ’14 finished with identical heights of 1.80 meters in the high jump. Cheever took third because of fewer misses than James.
Michael Austin ’13 took second place in the 400 meter hurdles and Adrian Carpenter placed fourth. Dale, who hadn’t tried clearing a 42 inch hurdle until his first hurdle race two weeks ago, ran the 110 meter hurdles prelim in 18.61 seconds, then came back to run a second faster, 17.58, in finals. In the 200 meters, James Morrissey ’12 beat his seed time by nearly half a second, running 23.95. Estes came in close behind at 24.27.
Morrissey, Nick Herringer ’14, Cheever, Dale and Estes all competed in the 400 meters. Morrissey led the way for the Knights in 53.83 seconds while Cheever ran a season best 54.96. In the 100 meters, Trey Brademan won the prize for consistency, clocking 12.35 seconds in prelims and 12.36 seconds in the final.
A smaller contingent of Carls competed at the Tom Cat Open hosted by St. Thomas on Sunday. The meet was rescheduled from Friday night when 25-30 mph winds and snow made conditions subarctic.
Colin Sinclair ’11 won one section of the 5000 meters in a personal best 15:38, despite making a move with 1300 meters to go, when he thought he had only 900 meters left. Sinclair’s “devastating finishing kick” had to be revised to a nervously extended scamper to the finish. The only Kian on the track team, Kian Flynn ’12, shattered his personal best by nearly 40 seconds to finish in 15:50. Brian Spisiak ‘13 lamented his conservative pace in the middle of the race, but still finished in about 16:02, followed closely by Guthrie Cunningham ’14. These two Carls crossed the finish line so quickly that meet officials somehow forgot to record their times (seriously).
Last night Carleton competed at a meet at Hamline and next Wednesday the Knights will compete either at Macalester or Hamline.
Colin Sinclair is a member of the men’s track team.