With their competition in last weekend’s Eastbay Invitational at UW-Stevens Point, the Lawrence University track and field teams completed the final hurdle before the much-awaited Midwest Conference Championship meet that will take place on Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturday, March 1 at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
Competing against several of the teams that will be at the conference meet, the Vikings were able to hold their own, finishing eighth out of 12 on the women’s side and 15th out of 19 teams on the very competitive men’s side. Nearly all of the best teams in the region had their top athletes racing, jumping and throwing, but the Lawrence women were still able to finish ahead of rival Ripon.
The best finishes of the day came on the women’s team from senior Katherine Dannecker and Elin Karlsson who took fifth place in their respective events. Dannecker, a native of Milwaukee, nabbed fifth in the mile run with her time of 5:40.55. Karlsson, a freshman from Stockholm, Sweden, raced to fifth place in the 5000-meter run with a time of 19:32.55. She was trailed by freshman Kristen Bischel who took seventh place in 19:39.05, and sophomore Liz Landes who snagged ninth place with a 20:09.15 finish.
On the men’s side of the competition, there were fewer standouts on the results sheets, but it was nonetheless a successful day. The 800-meter relay was able to sneak in at sixth place. The team was comprised of sophomore Dalton Sendelbach, junior Tyler Lueck and sophomores Bjorn Gowdy-Jaehnig and Eddie Rueda. With a strong finish, they clocked in at 1:40.21, barely out leaning the team from Cardinal Stritch University who finished only two-tenths of a second behind.
Also notable was the men’s 3000-meter run. Not only did sophomore Cam Davies run to an impressive eighth place with his time of 9:00.72, but senior Jamie Brisbois was able to notch a 14-second personal best in 9:03.18. Both runners finished well ahead of the next Midwest Conference runner.
As the team looks to the upcoming conference championships, morale is high despite very cold training weather all season. Look for both the men’s and women’s distance teams to score many of the team points, but both teams are looking for their relay and throwing teams to get into the point-scoring fray. The goal at the beginning of the season was top five for both the men and women’s teams, and that is certainly attainable.