The Lawrence University indoor track team traveled to Grinnell College last weekend to compete in the Midwest Conference Championships. While the team finished near the bottom of the overall standings on both sides of the competition, there were a few strong finishes, including junior Nick Kerkman’s Lawrence-record toss in the weight throw.
Freshman Curran Carlile led Lawrence the first day. Carlile took fourth in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:39.06, while senior David Zane placed seventh in 15:52.73. Freshman Sam Stevens, last year’s mile-run champion, was unable to repeat that feat, as he finished sixth in 4:30.07.
On the women’s side, Sam Luebke, Lin Zhao, Jelissa Thomas and Katherine Dannecker finished eighth in the 400-meter relay race with a time of 2:08.34. At the end of the first day, the women were in ninth with one point, and the men were in seventh with 10 points.
Unfortunately, the Vikings were unable to improve in the rankings on the second day. The women picked up their only points of day in the distance medley relay. Amanda Dwyer, Luebke, Alyssa Herman and Annie Sullivan ran to a time of 13:51.90, good enough for sixth place.
Dan Thoresen, Jesse Peterson, Mike Mangian and Stevens were the men’s top finishers of the day. They finished third in the distance medley relay, with a time of 10:43.60.
In the weight throw, Kerkman finished fifth with a throw of 14.92 meters, breaking his own school record set last week at the UW-Stevens Point Eastbay Invitational.
Stevens placed fifth in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:59.29. Carlile also performed well individually, grabbing seventh in the 3000-meter run in 9:03.52.
The women ended the competition with four points in ninth place, while the men finished with 26 points, good enough for seventh overall. The team will be comprised of many of their top performers next season including Stevens, Carlile and sophomore Rose Tepper.