<ack team family finishes most workouts at the Rec Center to the tune of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” The runners, jumpers and throwers took Adele’s words to heart as they set fire to the track Saturday at Grinnell College.
Several Carleton performances bested previous track records, including Bobby Davis’ ‘13 blistering outing in the 5,000 meters. Davis said running 25 laps around the soft circular curves was like rolling in the deep.
He didn’t let himself enjoy the surface for too long as he crossed the finish line in 15:23.06. At that pace Bobby could have covered the 245 miles back to Northfield in just 20 hours and 15 minutes!
Thor Laack-Veeder ’15, Mike Austin ’13, Connor Jackson ’15 and Jacob Hoerger ’14 worked together to cover 4,000 meters in one of the most exciting events in indoor track, the distance medley relay. Their record-breaking time of 10:48.94 put them easily in second place earning the team some hardware and a place on the podium. The #2 podium became a second home to the team as Kian Flynn ’12 and Marcus Huderle ’14 earned spots there for the mile and 3,000 meter respectively.
While the distance crew threw their less significant weight around and around the track, Ben Langfeldt ’12 and Jiatao Cheng ‘15 hurled their weights a small number of times, with a lot more oomph.
Langfeldt led the way in the weight throw with a toss of 12.72 meters. Jiatao tossed the weight 8.77 meters. On the other side of the field house, the Carleton jumpers were leaping their way into college lore. Dylan Cheever ’13, Lobo James ’14 and Chris Williams ’15 all cleared the height of 1.83 meters, which converts to something like six feet zero inches.
Everyone present at the meet agreed they couldn’t remember anytime where three jumpers on the team had cleared six feet, so they declared it a record.
The Carleton men arguably saved the best for last when the two 4×400 meter relay teams of Isaac Schrantz ’15, Jordan Washam ’14, Arnaud Kpachavi ’15, Colby Seyferth ’15, Jordan Butler ’13, Adrian Carpenter ’14, Arafat Akinlabi ’15, and Noah (or Thor) Laack-Veeder ’15 stepped to the line in the final event. The two teams traversed the distance in 3:27.70 and 3:34.62 respectively, which is believed to be faster than any time by a Carleton team last season. Look for these quick Carls and many others tonight at the Snowshoe Open at the University of Minnesota, or tomorrow at the Tostrud Classic across the Canon at St. Olaf.