<nother busy week for the women’s track team. Last Wednesday the Knights went to St. Thomas for the Tommie Twilight meet, Thursday and Friday saw heptathlon action at St. Olaf and the Meet of the UnSaintly took place on Saturday.
The Tommie Twilight went quite well. Megan Erlandson ’12 showed a return to her solid vaulting performances by clearing 10 feet, 10.25 inches to set a new school outdoor record. Kao Sutton ’14 threw the discus as far as she’s thrown since spring break, and Jessa Youso ’13 set a new PR just days after establishing her old one. She also PRed in the javelin, taking third in the event and qualifying her for the conference championships this weekend.
Many of the other Knights in the meet ran the metric mile. Simone Childs-Walker ’12 led the way with a time of 4:44, making her the first D-III runner to cross the line. She was followed by Alison Smyth ’12, dipping under the 4:50 mark and, more importantly, edging a Tommie by one one-hundredth of a second. Rachael Klehm ’13 and Alex Dunn ’11 worked together in their heat to run solid times, with Klehm running three seconds faster than her previous best. Rachel Kittaka ’12 continued her triumphant return to racing, running fast enough to qualify her for the conference championships. Shannon Mueller ’12 fought through her MCAT anxiety to run a season’s best and Laura Newcombe ’13 shaved an impressive 12 seconds off her time.
Another highly populated race for the Carls was the half-mile. Sarah Trautman ’13 won her heat in a speedy 2:22, while Carrie Harshbarger ’13 won hers in 2:31. Milana Socha ’14 was close behind.
Sprinter Maggie Sullivan ’14 took to the track with Erlandson in the 200 to run fast. Sullivan qualified for the conference championships in that event.
Then, the highly anticipated 4×400 happened. The Carls had enough athletes to field two full teams. Smyth achieved her dream of winning a 4×400 heat and the pure distance team beat some Oles. Never a bad thing.
On Saturday the throwers went to the Meet of the UnSaintly, with Youso throwing a personal best in the shot put and Lovett winning the javelin.
Last Thursday and Friday Sami Kemper ’14 and Kyla Walter ’11 trekked across the river to participate in the MIAC Heptathlon. Walter ended her collegiate multi career very successfully, winning the high jump in a new personal best of 5 feet, 1.75 inches. Other highlights included her second-place finishes in the hurdles and 200m dash. Kemper had some solid performances as well, taking third in the hurdles and 800. 2:22 is fast. The Knights now have three points heading into tonight’s MIAC Championships Part II.
The Knights qualified quite a few athletes for the championships. Key to their success will be Childs-Walker in the 5k and 10k and Lovett in the javelin. Erlandson could score big in the pole vault, as could Sutton in the discus. We’ll also see what Clare Franco ’12 can do in her signature event, the 400m dash and Kemper in hers, the triple jump. Kemper could also contribute in the 400m hurdles, as could a number of the 5k runners (in the 5k, not the hurdles). The meet will be held at Gustavus Adolphus, with trials this afternoon and finals tomorrow.
Alison Smyth is a member of the women’s track team.