< busy last couple of weeks for Carleton’s men’s track and field team. Although the Knights fell short of winning their second straight Rolex Classic, they put up some solid performances a week ago Tuesday at St. Olaf. A dual meet between Carleton and St. Olaf, Rolex is not decided by points, but rather by picking an event out of a hat immediately following the meet. Whichever team won the event picked wins the meet. This year, the deciding event turned out to be the 200 meters, where Josh Estes ’14 ran well but took second place to an Ole in a one-on-one dual.
Ty Martin ‘11 cruised in the 110 meter hurdles, winning by over a second in 15.26 seconds. Martin took a tumble in the 400 meter hurdles, falling over a hurdle on the final turn, but recovered to fend off teammates “Miami” Mike Austin ’13, Dylan Cheever ’13, and Adrian Carpenter ’14.
Cheever and Lobo James ‘14 took first and second in the high jump, both clearing a season best 1.88 meters. Jordan Soteros ‘14 also posted a season best in the pole vault, clearing 4.18 meters to win the event. C.J. Dale ‘13 jumped a personal best 13.04 meters to win the triple jump while Estes and Cooper Dodds ’13 also jumped personal bests.
Despite winning his first collegiate event, Colin Sinclair ’11 demonstrated how not to run the 5000 meters, blazing the first half of the race as if the starting gun had been aimed at him, before blowing up – thankfully no spectators were hurt – in the last mile. Sinclair dragged himself across the line in 15:56, while John “Bobby” Davis ’11, returning from sickness and injury, ran a tune up for conference in 16:13.
Marcus Huderle ‘14 remained undefeated in the 800 meters by stomping on Oles and running a 1:58. Brian Spisiak ‘13 got lost warming up to Olaf, but was confident enough in his directions on the track to lead the first 200 meters of the race on the way to a time of 2:03. Meanwhile in the other heat, Matt Harrison ’13 followed two namesakes of an Egyptian pharaoh to a time of 2:02. Tut-Tut. Michael “Bowlin’” Tolan ‘13 ran a personal best of 2:07.
Ben Langfeldt ‘12 took second in the discus with a season best toss of 39.1 meters. Dylan Bothun ’11 led the Knights in the javelin, waiting until his final throw to unleash a security guard-worthy throw of 40.27 meters, nearly an astounding five-meter personal best. Both the 4×100 and 4×400 meter relays finished close behind the Oles. Kian Flynn ’12 was fifth in the 1500 meters, followed by Josh Campbell ‘13, who got off his bike ten minutes before race time. Michael Knudson ’11 fought off a stealthy Famous Johnson ‘13 in the last 200 meters to break 4:30 in the 1500. Ben Parks ’11, recently returned from the great state of Wisconsin, followed in 4:34. All three Carls ran personal bests.
On Thursday and Friday, CJ Dale and Dylan Cheever took 9th (5252 points) and 13th (5080 points) place at the MIAC Decathlon at St. Olaf. Dale took 2nd in the 100 and 400 meter dashes, while Cheever won the high jump and ran away with the 1500 meters.
On Saturday, several Knights competed at the Meet of the Unsaintly at Hamline. Knudson and Parks ended their Carleton track careers in style, trading laps en route to personal best times of 16:50 and 16:54 in the 5000 meters.
Colin Sinclair is a member of the men’s track team.