(Photo courtesy of Cam Blegen)
The Lawrence University outdoor track team traveled to Waukesha, Wis., last weekend for their first competition of the season. According to junior Cam Blegen, “[The team was] originally scheduled to compete at UW-Oshkosh this past weekend for the season opener, but the meet was moved to Carroll since the Oshkosh track still had snow on it!” Both the men’s and women’s sides looked to start the season off on the right foot.
Building on his strong indoor track performance earlier this year, sophomore Sam Stevens led the men’s side by placing third in the 1500-meter race. Stevens ran a time of 4:08.53, barely two seconds behind UW-Oshkosh’s Brett DeNure’s winning time of 4:06.14.
Stevens competed alongside Blegen, senior Jesse Peterson, and freshman Sam Wagner as one of three Lawrence teams taking part in the 4×400 meter relay. The team was seeded with a time of 3:36.98 but lost ground in the final, finishing in 3:41.97, good enough for sixth place.
The Carroll Invitational gave freshman M. Jay Bouska experience in his first collegiate meet. Bouska competed in four events including the high jump, long jump and 4×400 meter relay. However, his best performance was finishing sixth in the triple jump with a leap of 38 feet, 3.5 inches.
After missing out on the NCAA tournament due to food poisoning, sophomore Rose Tepper began her season fit to compete and immediately made an impact on the women’s side. Tepper raced as a member of the women’s 4×100 meter relay squad and competed in the high jump. In the latter event, Tepper placed eighth with a 4 foot, 11 inch leap.
The Vikings will return to Carroll this weekend for their next competition.