Vikings host annual track meet

The Lawrence Track and Field team competed in its only home meet of the indoor and outdoor season this past Saturday. Despite several individual victories, the Vikings struggled to compete against St. Norbert, whose men and women took first place in the team standings. The Lawrence women tied for second with Ripon, while the men finished in third.

As it is the last meet before the Midwest Conference Championship, the Vikings used this home meet as a last opportunity to set a fast seed time or try to find success in a different event. The meet was highlighted by many individual successes. On the women’s side, senior Hayley Cardinal found her first victory of the year with a first place finish in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:07. The women also finished in first in the 4×400-meter relay with junior Amy Hutchings surprising the leading St. Norbert team by overtaking their anchor leg for the victory. The Lawrence 4×4 finished in a time of 4:26.

The men also had many individual successes, highlighted by the first and second place finishes by junior Max Edwards and freshman Ben Schaefer in the 5,000-meter run. Their times, 16:23 and 16:31 respectively, were well ahead of the third-place runner who finished in 18:06. Sophomore Teddy Kortenhof also took the victory in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:40, beating his only other competitor by seven seconds. Junior Wes Hetcher found success in the field events with a victory in the pole vault in a height of 12 feet 7.5 inches.

Finally, freshman Dan Sandacz finished his big day with a victory in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.29, and a second place finish in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.64.

Next week, the Vikings will be competing in the biggest meet of the year: the Midwest Conference Championship, where they will look to bring all of the pieces together and perform at their best. The Vikings certainly have the talent for a top-five finish, however that reality will be difficult to achieve. Lawrence will battle amongst the other conference teams, including the nationally ranked Monmouth College, this weekend in Mount Vernon, Iowa at Cornell College.