This past weekend, Lawrence University’s Indoor Track team travelled to Oshkosh, Wisc. to compete in the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh Titan Challenge before heading into the Midwest Conference meet this weekend. Throughout the field on both the men’s and women’s side, there were several stellar performances. Even a 13 year-old record of Lawrence’s was broken this past weekend.
Freshman Will Nichols competed in the 200-meter dash running a time of 22.81, which was .25 seconds faster than Lawrence’s school record that was set by Adrell Bullock in 2004. Freshman Noah Shea placed fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 42 feet, 11.5 inches. Sophomore Ben Schaefer placed eighth in the 5,000-meter with a time of 16:40.23. The 4×400-meter team competed in a time of 3:34.45 and placed eighth. The men’s team finished in seventh place overall with 13 points, with a bulk of those coming from Nichols.
On the women’s side of the competition, junior Hannah Kinzer placed third in the 3,000-meter with a time of 11:03.69. Along with Kinzer’s performance, the 4×400-meter team placed sixth with a time of 4:25.79. Junior Kate Kilgus placed eighth in the 800-meter, along with freshman Christina Sedall who placed fourteenth. The women’s team finished tenth overall with 12 points.
With conference coming up for the team, the main focus for everyone was to aim for their goals and race, jump, and throw to their best abilities. Conference will be held on Feb. 24 and 25 in Jacksonville, Ill. and will be hosted by Illinois College. There will be several athletes to watch out for as the finish the season at conference and head into the outdoor season for the year.
Sophomore Josh Janusiak is always a person to watch for in the 5,000-meter and the 3,000-meter. Freshman Joe Kortenhof is another male distance runner to look for as he will be competing the 3,000-meter this weekend if he is able to compete. He is listed as second in the rankings, following closely behind Janusiak. Shea is another competitor to keep an eye on, especially in the triple jump and is ranked second behind Illinois College’s Levon Hendricks. Nichols, fresh from breaking the school’s record, will be aiming to break his own record again, and is ranked fifth in the standings. Senior Wes Hetcher is ranked seventh in the pole vault, while senior Jackson Straughan is ranked sixth in the weight throw. Kilgus is ranked tenth in the mile and should be a very competitive runner in the race. Kinzer will be competing in the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter and is ranked twelfth and tenth, respectively. Junior Janey Degnan will be competing in the pole vault amongst other events and is ranked tenth in the standings. With all the runners competing in their individual races, the interesting events to watch will be the relays to see how they compete.
With goals set and in grasp, Lawrence’s team will go into the Conference meet with high hopes and strong ambitions. Make sure you wish them luck as their season will come to an end this weekend.
