After a strong start to the outdoor season at the Private College Championships, the Lawrence University men’s and women’s track and field teams headed up to St. Norbert College on Thursday, April 13th for the St. Norbert Twilight. The men took third in a stacked field of nine with 105 points while the women were ninth out of eleven with 25 points. Outside of the team scores, there were a lot of strong individual performances: “I thought a lot of people had amazing performances and it was a good confidence booster for the rest of the season” said freshman Joe Kortenhof.
On the men’s side of the competition, freshman Noah Shea took second in the triple jump with a jump of 43 feet, 8.75 inches and was also fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.21. In the hurdle events, sophomore Dan Sandacz took fifth in both the 110 meter hurdles and the 400 meter hurdles. He ran 16.68 in the 110 hurdles and 59.32 in the 400 meter hurdles. In the distance events, the Vikings had three men place in the top five of the 1500-meter run led by Kortenhof who took second with a time of 4:22.96. Sophomore Ben Schaefer was right behind him in third at 4:25.99 and junior Teddy Kortenhof took fifth with a time of 4:43.30. The Vikings also scored points in the 5000-meter run as sophomore Alec Timpe took fourth with a time of 16:55.40 and freshman Aaron Arthur was eighth running 19:45.79. In the field events, Lawrence placed third in the top six of the javelin. Senior Wes Hetcher was third with a throw of 147-6, sophomore Max Stahl was fourth with a throw of 146-5, and freshman Jake Ryan was sixth with a throw of 127-3. In the pole vault, the Vikings scored two as Hetcher was fourth with a vault of 12-5.5 and junior Jackson Boeh was sixth jumping 10-11.5. Lawrence also placed three in the hammer throw. The group was led by senior Jackson Straughan who took third with a throw of 149-5. Sophomore Jimmy Geraghty followed him in fifth with a toss of 118-9 and freshman Gabe Baker was eighth with a throw of 104-10. The Vikings also picked up points from freshman Tanner MacArthur as he took seventh in the high jump with a jump of 5-3. Lawrence also placed in both the 4×100 meter and 4×400 meter relays. The 4×100 was third with a time of 46.34 and the 4×400 was fourth in 3:40.93.
On the women’s side of the competition, the Lady Vikes were well represented in the distance events. Freshman Christina Sedall took second in the 5000-meter run, running 19:29.11. Sophomore Courtney Fine took fourth in the same event with a time of 20:40.28. Senior Kate Kilgus took sixth in the 800 meter-run with a time of 2:25.61. Lawrence picked up its other points from the relays. The 4×100 meter relay took sixth circling the track in 52.89 while the 4×400 meter relay took fifth in a time of 4:20.92.
“We’re starting out really well,” reflected junior Janey Degnan. “It’s been a hard block of training but we’re seeing PR’s [personal records] from a lot of people and morale is really high. Our first couple of meets have gone fantastically and the new members are contributing really well to the team. We’re looking forward to the next couple of weeks of meets as we build toward conference.”
The team heads back to St. Norbert for their next competition on Saturday, April 22 for the St. Norbert Invitational on the road to the conference championships held May 12 and 13. Each week between now and conference, Lawrence will look to hone their skills in practice and competition so that they can achieve their goals when the lights shine brightest: conference.
