The indoor track and field team headed off to UW-Oshkosh on Saturday, Jan. 18 to begin their season. For senior Brielle Bartes, her season could not have started off much better, as she broke the school record in the weight throw. Last year, LU sophomore Genna Matt established a new school record of 38 feet, 4 inches. Saturday, Bartes threw to a record 38 feet, 10.5 inches, breaking this record on her third of six throws. This placed her sixth overall for the day. Matt also had an extraordinary performance during the weight throw event this past weekend. She placed seventh overall with a 38 feet, 32 inch throw.
In the women’s 1-mile run, Lawrence had three women finish in the top 10. Freshman Amy Hutchings ran an impressive 5:36 minute mile, gaining two points for the Vikings. Additionally, sophomore Cora Williams and freshman Kate Kilgus ran a 5:41 and a 5:43 mile, respectively. As far as the men’s 1-mile run, senior Dan Thoresen finished with an impressive 4:36 mile, giving the Vikings another two points to add to the board.
The women dominated the 3000-meter run with six Lawrence students finishing in the top 10. Freshman Elin Karlsson came in second place in a time of 11:20.32, scoring three points for her timely finish. Right behind Karlsson was fellow freshman Kristen Bischel, crossing the finish line at 11:20.61 and contributing another two points to the Vikings score. In the men’s 3000 meter run, sophomore Cam Davies and junior Kyle Dockery placed second and third, respectively, for the Vikings. Davies finished with a time of 9.18, scoring three points for his team, and Dockery came in at 9.21 (adding two points).
In the men’s pole vault event, freshman Wes Hetcher finished third overall. He completed the day with a vault height of 3.74 meters to score two points. Other notable finishers for this opening meet included sophomore JP Ranumas, who won the 60-meter hurdle event in a time of 8.85 seconds. Scoring two points for her team with an impressive long jump finish was senior Sam Luebke. She finished fourth overall, with her longest jump coming in at 4.35 meters.
Despite these valiant efforts, both the men’s and women’s teams lost to powerhouse UW-Oshkosh. The Lawrence men lost 96-35 to Oshkosh, while the women fell 104-33. However, the team continues to train and prepare for their upcoming meet on Saturday, Feb. 1, at UW-Stout for the Warren Bowles Invitational.