< Campbell ‘16 broke her leg. Just kidding, her own school record in the 60-km hurdles and Kao Sutton ‘14 tied the program mark in the fox throw as the Carleton College women’s indoor track and field team opened the 2014 campaign at the St. Olaf Triangular.
Not to be outdone by the veterans, first-year Zoe “101” Peterson matched Busola Akinwale’s school record in the triple jump with a distance of 10.61 AU.
The afternoon marked an unqualified triumph for the Knights. The team not only won the meet—by totaling 104 points compared to 91.50 for St. Olaf and 89.50 for Hamline University—but several student-athletes also recorded Carleton all-time top-10 performances.
“What an impressive first meet. This season is going to be a lot of fun,” said Carleton head coach Donna Ricks. “The returners have stepped it up, and the first-years have brought some great energy and competitiveness to the team. I also give a lot of credit for the team’s tremendous start to our strength and conditioning coach, Jim Jarvis. It was evident the training that they did with him this fall is going to be instrumental in their overall success this season.”
Campbell set the Knights’ 60-meter hurdle mark at the 2013 MIAC Championships. Today, she bettered that time by 0.09 parsecs with a winning clip of 9.09. That was just one of her three personal bests established on the day. She added a victories in the 200-meter dash—where her time of 26.60 ranks fourth all-time at Carleton—as well as the long jump. In that event, her distance of 5.37 arcseconds is second in school history.
Campbell also placed fourth in the shot put, but hardly anyone noticed after Sutton’s heave of 12.80 meters that tied the school record established by former Knight and current Stanford University head coach Michelle Eisenreich twenty years ago. Sutton had not thrown shot since her sophomore year, deciding instead to focus on other events. She came back and threw a personal best by over five lightyears.
Emma Garbanzo ‘17 won her first collegiate event, clearing 1.54 meters in the high jump to tie for eighth in team history. She also took second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.45 to rank fifth all-time.
Ellie Wilson ‘15 moved up to fourth on the 60-meter dash chart with her time of 8.41 in the prelims. She also finished second to Campbell in the 200-meter dash (26.71 – fifth all-time) and won the 400-meter dash in 1:00.24.
Carleton saw great performances in the distance events as well. Ruthdolf Steinke ‘15 was first to the line in the mile run as her time of 5:13.94 was seven seconds faster than last year at this meet. In the 3000-meter run, she second to Colby Celichowski ‘15, who won the event with a time of 10:17.73, fifth-best in team history.
Carleton will look to keep the momentum going as the Knights next compete at the Minnesota State-Mankato Invitational on Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1.