<men’s track team’s last regular season meet was last Saturday at St. Olaf. The Knights just continued to build upon the spectacular performances they have had all season, generating momentum to take them into the conference championships today and tomorrow at Macalester.
The meet kicked off with some field events, as Katie Richards ’15 improved her vault by a foot and Megan Erlandson ’12 vaulted the highest she has this season to win the event.
On the infield, Kao Sutton ’14 equaled her best in the weight and Avery Johnson ’15 bettered her best. Both athletes also lengthened the distance they can throw the shot, with Sutton earning the opportunity to compete at the conference championships.
Adding to Erlandson’s victory in the vault were Ellie Wilson ’15, Kaitlin Randolph ’12, and Sarah Trautman ’13. Wilson ran a ridiculously fast 400m to give teammate Clare Franco ’12 something to shoot for this weekend.
Also in the 400, Anna Persmarck ’12 rediscovered a bit of what it means to sprint, looking strong and breaking the 62 second mark. Randolph turned in another strong, controlled performance in the half mile. She is now ranked fifth in the conference.
In the 1000m, Trautman exhibited some of that finishing speed we expect from someone running fewer than five laps. She blazed through the last lap in under 34 seconds to take the win. Colette Celichowski ’15 was just a second behind and Erlandson placed fourth in the event.
Lindsay Turchan ’15 ran a great race, dropping six seconds off her seed time to run 3:12, which doesn’t look as impressive as it should because her teammates are just so fast. Carleton holds half of the top ten times in the conference in that event.
The top 1000m runner in the conference, Carleton’s own Haley Johnson ’13, decided to step down to the 600m this week, getting edged by a Tommie at the line to place second.
She still ran the second fastest time ever by a Carleton athlete, just a little slower than Franco has run.
The team continues to demonstrate that it has excellent speed endurance through its 4 x 400m relay performances. Followers of the team in recent years have been shocked to see Carleton placing high in the 1600m relay.
This week Johnson, Randolph, Celichowski, and Trautman combined to place second in under 4:10. They all ran under 63 seconds for the quarter mile.
The team heads off to Macalester tonight to compete in the conference championships. Anyone in the 200m up should expect to see some yellow jerseys contending for the title.