Genna Matt breaks 15 year-old record with throw

While the team placement goals for the 2013 Midwest Conference Indoor Track and Field meet were not quite met by either the men’s or the women’s team, several individual performances provided entertainment. The meet took place Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb. 23 in Monmouth, Illinois and featured all of the MWC’s major talent.

The highlight of the weekend for the Vikings was freshman Genna Matt’s school record-smashing throw of 11.64m in the 20lb weight throw. She broke Alissa Joseph’s record throw of 10.64m set in 1998. Not only did Matt break the school record by over a meter, but she also set a personal best by over a meter. The freshman from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin had been inching closer to the record each week only to decimate it at the conference championships.

Teammate Brielle Bartes noted, “[She’s] one of the best teammate’s ever. We all wish her congratulations on her phenomenal performance.”

In addition to Matt’s performance, the men’s distance medley relay team was also able to come through this year with an impressive second place finish. The team, consisting of junior Dan Thoresen, freshman Tyler Herman, junior Mike Mangian and senior Sam Stevens, posted a time of 10:49.84.This is the third time in as many years that Lawrence has scored in the top three in this event.

“It really shows the depth and prowess of our distance squad,” said Stevens. “I’m excited that we have this trend going and that we’ll be able to continue our high performance in this event.”

Stevens also nabbed third place in both the 3000-meter and 5000-meter runs with his times of 8:55.05 and 15:16.24.

Furthermore, freshman standout JP Ranumas grabbed fourth place in the 60-meter hurdles with his time of 9.10 seconds. In the women’s 60-meter hurdles, fellow freshman Sofie Yang from Whitefish Bay finished sixth overall with her 9.90 time.

Overall, head coach Jason Fast was pleased with the performance. “We had set higher goals, but we faced some pretty rough training conditions this year, so I’m definitely proud of the way we fought through that and competed the way we did.”

As the Vikings look forward to the outdoor season, Fast is confident that the potential he sees in the team will reveal itself more readily. “The outdoor season will be a much better indicator of where we are at as a team because we will have a more level playing field in regards to training with other schools in our conference.”

The team has several weeks off to rest and rebuild before beginning the outdoor season on Apr. 6 at the UW-Oshkosh Invitational.