<metimes it is hard to tell how well a track team did purely by looking at the point total at the end of the day. The Knights finished third among the four squads participating in the Meet of the Hearts held at Carleton College’s Recreation Center. There were enough notable performances that Noah Laack-Veeder’s ‘15 school-record time in the 600-meter run (1:22.99) didn’t necessarily stand out on this day.
“Just a tremendous team effort,” said Carleton head coach Dave Ricks. “It was one on the best days on our home track in many years.”
Hamline won the team competition with 186 points, followed by Gustavus Adolphus (141), Carleton (119), and Luther (102). Rookies Joe Haase and Jack Percival were recognized as co-athletes of the meet with Hamline’s Christian Willman, who established a new Rec Center record in the 600-meter dash.
Laack-Veeder was third in a tight race, where the top three finishers each eclipsed the previous Rec Center record and took over the top three times in the MIAC this season.
Colby Seyferth ‘15 had a busy day by competing in the long jump, high jump, shot put, 400-meter dash and 4×400-meter relay. He finished second in the 400-meter race (51.39), then capped the day with another come-from-behind anchor leg in the 4×400 relay.
Noah and Thor Laack-Veeder ‘15 joined with Arnaud Kpachavi ‘15 to put Seyferth in position for his meet-concluding heroics. Carleton has now used eight different runners on the 4x400m relay team this season while winning the event in all four meets in which the Knights have competed.
Not to be outdone, the Carleton distance contingent put together five personal records in the fast heat of the mile run, as the quintet all under 4:30. Bobby Davis ‘13 placed second, followed by Jacob Hoerger ‘14, Jonah Barry ‘16, Guthrie Cunningham ‘14, and Hart Hornor ‘16 in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh places, respectively.
The 800- and 1000-meter runs were also packed with excitement.
Thor Laack-Veeder put in a yeoman’s effort to run a personal-best time (1:58.82, seventh in the MIAC this year) and setup Percival in his first collegiate 800-meter race. Laack-Veeder took it out for the first 600 meters and setup the entire field for great times. Percival went on to win the race with the MIAC’s second-fastest time this season at 1:56.92, second only to Noah Laack-Veeder.
Arafat Akinlabi ‘15, Caleb Flack ‘16, Oliver Heywood ‘15, and Adam Scherling ‘13 each established new PR’s at the 800-meter distance. Akinlabi sliced six seconds off his previous best, and Scherling dropped his previous personal best–set a year ago–by seven seconds .
Haase ran like a veteran while putting together a dominating performance at the 1000-meter distance. His team-leading time of 2:33.26 ranks fourth-fastest in the MIAC this season.
In the day’s longest race, the 3000-meter run, Marcus Huderle ‘14 used a “make-over” racing strategy and dropped his time by 29 seconds from one week ago while running away with the win.
Jordan Washam ‘14 added second-place result in the 200-meter dash with a season-best mark of 23.82.
In the field events, Lobo James ‘14 cleared 1.91 meters (6 feet, 3.25 inches), matching the top performance in the event. Adan Nunez-Frausto ‘14 continued his strong debut in the weight throw with a distance of 44 feet, 4 inches.