<r the first two hours of competition, McNeil was busy dashing from event to event, and loved every minute of it. “I’m just a guy trying to stay warm” he said after the pole vault. In the high jump McNeil was joined by classmates Chris Williams ’15 and Colby Seyferth ’15 who all cleared at least 1.5 meters. Lobo James ’14 wouldn’t be outdone by the first years, clearing 1.88m for the 1st place.
In the hurdles, McNeil joined Garo Aguiano-Sainz ’15 and Adrian Carpenter ’14 in the first ever running of the 60-meter hurdles at the Tostrud Indoor Track. Carpenter blazed to victory in 8.65 and secured the track record. As soon as the track was clear of hurdles, McNeil, Syferth, Ian Reeves ’15, Preston Carlisle ’15, and Woosik Koong ’13 debuted in the 60-meter dash.
Seyferth covered the distance in 7.14 seconds, fast enough for the win, the track record and also a Carleton record in the event.
Isaac Schrantz ’15 and Jordan Washam ’14 combined for a 1-2 finish in their first 400 wearing the C for Carleton. Arnaud Kpachavi ’15 wasn’t thrown off by the announcer butchering his name as he led teammate Arafat Akinlabi ’15 in tearing up the 600-meter dash. Oliver Heywood ‘15 also completed 600 meters in good time, but went an extra 200 to finish the metric half mile.
Heywood’s first-year teammates Noah Laack-Veeder, Thor Laack-Veeder, Connor Jackson and Ben Levy raised him another 200 in the 1000-meter run. Noah (or Thor) led this swag squad in 2:35, followed closely by Thor (or Noah) and Jackson finishing just a hundredth of a second apart. Ben Levy and his hamstrings filled out the Carleton crew as he flirted with the three-minute barrier, finishing in 3:01.
In one of the only events McNeil didn’t compete, Jiatao Cheng ’15 and Andrew Campbell ’14 started their Carleton careers off well, scoring for the Knights.
They were led by senior Ben Langfeldt ’12 in the weight throw, as he placed seventh. Seniors Kian Flynn and Jon Raberg rounded out their class in the competition. Flynn smashed the nine-minute mark in the 3,000, running 8:54, and Raberg placed in both the 60- and 200-meter dashes. The Knights head down the Cannon tomorrow for the Mankato State Invitational.