Regular track season came to a conclusion two weeks ago as the Midwest Conference (MWC) Outdoor Track & Field Championship was held on Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10. This championship was held at home on Lawrence’s track in Whiting Field. Student-athletes from Lawrence, Beloit College, Cornell College, Grinnell College, Illinois College, Knox College, Lake Forest College, Monmouth College and Ripon College converged on the recently redone blue and gray track surface and surrounding jumping pits, mats, and throwing cages to compete in two days of events.
Competition started on Friday with throws at 12:30 p.m. and running events following at 2 p.m. Temperatures were in the 70s, a sunny change from previous weeks. The first running event of the meet was the longest — 25 laps around a 400m track, also known as the 10,000m. Senior Edythmae Frodl scored the Vikings’ first points with a fourth place finish in 40:56.45. This was Frodl’s first and last 10,000m race in the NCAA, as she will be graduating in June. In the men’s race, sophomore Finn Lee earned all-conference honors with a third place finish and a time of 32:28.34. Senior Sam Brewer came in fourth just behind Lee in 32:36.02, which was a huge personal best. In the women’s 1500m, first year Mila Westra and senior Cristyn Oliver took fourth and sixth in times of 4:46.99 and 4:47.71 respectively. Sophomore Ryan Cassiday and first year Nick Hansen represented for the men, scoring sixth and seventh places in 3:59.47 and 4:00.40. Field events boasted six scoring marks: first year Werner Norrbom (fourth in men’s pole vault), first year Clara Lyford (sixth in women’s pole vault), first year Alice Gorinshteyn (eighth in women’s pole vault), junior Tristan Zook (fifth in men’s long jump), senior Will Eggert (seventh in men’s javelin) and first year Greta Vianden (eighth in women’s hammer throw).
Going into day two, the Lawrence men’s team was in fifth place with 27 points and the women were in sixth place with 18 points. Senior Irene Yank and junior Anna Vanden Acker grabbed the Vikings’ first points on Saturday, placing second and fourth in the triple jump. Sophomore Leo Hagberg placed third on the men’s side. Hagberg, along with Zook, sophomore Brendan Cross and first-year Nick Lubin scored fifth in the 4x100m relay. The women’s 4x100m team, consisting of Yank, Vanden Acker, junior Morgan Cross and sophomore Ella Fajardo-Wilde, took eighth. Yank pulled triple duty, also scoring fourth in the 100m hurdles. The 3,000m steeplechase saw three scoring opportunities as senior Riley Winebrenner (school record-holder in this event) placed third, sophomore Max “Shaggy” Reemtsma took fourth in a massive personal best time and first-year Nick Hansen placed seventh. Westra came back to competition in the 800m alongside junior teammate Faith Onukaogu to run to fourth and eighth places. First year Zach Meyer took fourth in the men’s 800m. Junior Natalie Kragie took seventh in the high jump with a jump of 4-9.5.
Gaby Skorczewski placed in two events. The sophomore took seventh in the 400m hurdles in 1:13.27 and fourth in the 400m with a time of 1:00.11, although they ran an all-time best of 59.76 in an earlier heat.
“I feel so lucky to have been able to meet a landmark PR in my 400m career both during a championship meet and on my own track,” Skorczewski said, referring to the 60 second barrier. “The memory of that race and the joy I shared with my team will always have a special place in my heart”.
The second-to-last event on the track was the 5,000m, which saw four Vikings score. Both Lee and Cassiday doubled back to race to sixth and seventh places. Frodl also came back from the 10,000m the day before to take fifth place in a time of 18:33.33, a season’s best. Cristyn Oliver won the event by more than 12 seconds over Ripon’s Joley Berger, with a time of 17:51.18. Oliver had the fastest time by far coming into the Championship, as she had broken her own school record with a 17:25.23 earlier in the season.
“Taking home the 5k title on the home track was something I will never forget,” Oliver said.
In her career, Oliver has taken home two outdoor 5,000m titles, as well as countless all-conference performances, MWC Performer of the Week awards, and three individual cross country titles. “It was my last race ever for LU, so having the opportunity to race it at our track was amazing, and I am forever grateful for that experience.”
The 4x400m relay capped off the final day of competition. The energy was electric, as the men’s and women’s titles came down to one last race. The women were first; Westra, Onukaogu, Skorczewski and Lyford teamed up to finish fifth place in a time of 4:12.41. The men followed with Zook, Meyer, Cross and sophomore Alex Luckett racing to sixth place in 3:24.03. Overall, the women finished sixth place with 76 points. The men finished sixth as well with 57 points.
“I was really happy with how we performed as a team,” said Brewer, mentioning how the men moved up from seventh place during the indoor track season.
Oliver credited hosting as a great motivator.
“With it being at home, we had so many great performances from the team, bringing home some All-Conference honors and tons of personal bests.”
She called the experience “so special”, saying that “it made racing even more fun than usual because I saw so many familiar faces in the audience showing support for us.”
Skorczewski shared a similar sentiment, noting that it “gave me confidence and purpose going into each of my races [to] compete in the same space that my teammates have laughed with me and encouraged me countless times before.”
Brewer was confident that these championships were a step in the right direction.
“With a great crew of recruits coming in next year I think we’ll continue to move up,” he said.
Distance track athletes will start Cross Country training soon, while jumpers, sprinters, vaulters and throwers will be back to conditioning during Fall Term.