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For the second time in as many days, first-year Jerry Cook-Gallardo (Moscow, Idaho/Moscow) established a new Carleton College men’s indoor track and field team record for the 800-meter dash. This time he bettered the mark while racing in front of his friends and classmates at the Kelly Family Meet of the Hearts held at the Recreation Center.
Cook-Gallardo initially broke the 800-meter mark on Friday night at St. Thomas when he finished in 1:54.06. Only 18 hours later he was running the same event on his home track and clocked a time of 1:53.87, which ranks ninth in the nation and gave him a six-plus second margin of victory.
While one school record had lasted less than a day, Carleton saw another team standard eclipsed on Saturday and this one had held up for 28 years. Evan McNeil (Sr./ Burnsville, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels) cleared 4.58 meters (15’ 0.25”) in the pole vault, surpassing Jeff Brown’s indoor mark of 15 feet set in 1987. McNeil finished second in a jump-off won by Hamline University’s Mark Volker, as the duo recorded the top two marks in the MIAC this season.
Those performances helped the Knights finish with 144 points, which trailed team champion Hamline (179 points) but ranked ahead of Luther College (126.50) and Gustavus Adolphus (125.50).
The meet was dedicated to the Kelly family, a big supporter of both Carleton Track and Field programs. The Kelly family also supports an award— created in honor of Wil- liam S. Kelly, Sr.—to recognize Carleton’s most improved track and field athletes.
After also running at the UST Showcase last night, Jonah Barry (Jr./Madison, Wis./Madison West) turned in an impressive race in the mile, prevailing by nearly 13 seconds at 4:19.12.
Colby Seyferth (Sr./Banks, Ore./ Banks) continued his strong senior campaign by winning the 400-meter dash in 49.82, missing the Rec Center record by only 0.01 second. He had an equally impressive leap of 1.93 meters (6’4”) in the high jump. Seyferth ended the day taking a hand off from teammate Arnaud Kpachavi (Sr./San Gregorio, Calif./Woodside Priory School) in the 4×400-meter relay as Carleton won the event in 3:24.61, and the seniors notched their final home victory at the Rec Center.
Thor Laack-Veeder (Sr./Madi- son, Wis./LaFollette) also left in style, winning the 1000-meter run at 2:33.66 and then anchoring the Carleton 4×400 entry that won the second heat.
Other runner-up performances include:
Evan Howard (Jr./St. Petersburg, Fla./Home School) ran a personal best time of 672 in finishing second overall during the 55-meter dash.
Ben Hiskes (Jr./Storrs, Conn./ Loomis Chaffee) won his heat of the 800-meter run with a big PR and finished second overall to Cook- Gallardo.
Joe Haase (Jr./Fitchburg, Wis./ West) took second behind Laack-Veeder in the 1000-meter at 2:35.25.
Carleton has two different competitions on the docket for next Saturday, Feb. 21. The Knights are slated to send some student-athletes to the Pointers Big Dawg Invite at UW-Stevens Point with the remainder of the roster slated to take part in the Tostrud Classic at St. Olaf.
Following this weekend’s meet the Knights will have two weeks to prepare for MIAC’s.