By Brady Busha
Lawrence University’s Men’s and Women’s Track teams had some great success at University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. The men’s team finished in 10th place, and the women’s team finished in fifth. The teams accomplished this at the Eastbay Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Erin Schrobilgen shone brightly in Stevens Point, breaking her own school record in the mile run. Schrobilgen placed third in the event, finishing in 5:21.84. With that time, Schrobilgen broke Sue Schneider’s previous record of 5:22.01, set in 1978.
A squad of Lawrence women competed in the 800-meter relay at the Invitational. Freshman Kendra Thomas, senior Anna Bolgrien, freshman Janey Degnan and freshman Marisa Morrison raced to fourth place with a time of 1:58.53.
Brenna Ori, a sophomore, barely missed out on making the top eight in the long jump. She placed ninth in the event with a distance of 3.61 meters. Representing the men in the event, the best finisher for the Vikings was sophomore Wes Hetcher, placing 18th with a distance of 5.42 meters, followed by freshman Jackson Boeh in 20th, with a distance of 5.06 meters.
Freshman Hannah Kinzer competed in the 5,000 meter run, finishing in third with a time of 19:49.63. Her teammate, freshman Margaret Huck, finished in fifth place in the same event, with a time of 20:01.39. This type of competitiveness from the freshmen across the board for the Lawrence Women’s Track team could produce some great things in the future.
The Men’s Track team also competed well at the invitational. In the 3000-meter run, junior Cam Davies placed fifth with a time of 9:18.22. Junior Jordan Atkins placed tenth with a time of 9:51.07. In the 800-meter relay, the team of sophomore JP Ranumas, freshman Cole Erickson, junior Dalton Sendelbach and sophomore Trevor Spina raced to fifth place with a time of 1:40.11.
Next up for the Viking track teams is the Midwest Conference Championships, taking place in Grinnell, IA. On the championships, Erickson expressed a lot of confidence in the team’s chances of finishing high, saying, “Our team is as prepared as we can be…I’m personally thrilled to be a part of multiple relays, since we’ve been putting up great times in our past few meets. We have so many amazing athletes on the team, it will be great to see how our best compare to the best from other schools.”
Everybody on campus has undoubtedly seen the squad of athletes running down the clear paths near the wellness center at some point. These dedicated athletes go, after a full day of class, and brave the cold time and time again to get better at their respective events. Good luck to both teams in their upcoming competition, and congratulations on another year of hard work put in the books for the Lawrence University indoor track teams.