Sports

Track and field builds on early-season success


John Kipper, Staff Writer


As the short indoor season winds down, the men’s and women’s teams are finding immense success in both track and field events. At the Carleton Meet of Hearts, both teams did extremely well with several members shattering personal records.

For women’s track events, sophomore sprinter Jada Lewis won the 55-meter dash and set a personal record (PR) with a time of 7.35 seconds. With her time adjusted for the 60-meter dash (7.92), she holds the second-fastest time in the MIAC for that event. Sophomore distance runner Grace Hartman completed the 1,000-meter run in 3:39.28. Fellow distance runner and sophomore Ann Scheely ran a PR of 19:43.97 in the 5,000-meter run, which was also good for fourth place and the 17th-fastest time in the MIAC. In the field events, junior thrower Kenna Bannister continued to build upon a strong season, finishing second in the weight throw with a distance of 46’1”, breaking her previous best by 3.5 feet. In the shot put, she finished second with 35’11.5”, an 11” improvement on her previous PR.

On the men’s side, the sprinters stole the show, claiming four of the top-seven spots, with junior Miracle Adebanjo finishing first (6.89), junior Sam Rosario taking second (6.91), first-year Landon Mitteness in fifth (7.02) and junior Patrick Deng in seventh (7.07). In the 200-meter sprint, Adebanjo finished fourth (24.32), first-year Evan Bergemann placed eighth (24.89) and Taron Busby finished ninth (25.02). In the 4×200-meter relay, Busby, Deng, Parker Blake and Alex Pruitt clipped about nine seconds off their previous season best, finishing with a time of 1:38.77.

The distance runners were represented by first-year Mohamed Salad and sophomore Greg Miller. Salad placed 10th in the one-mile run (4:33.2), and Miller set a new PR in the 3,000-meter run (10:00.53). In the field events, high-jumper Alex Bailey finished third and set a PR with a jump of 5’10.75”. In the long jump, Mitteness finished in a tie for seventh with a distance of 18’11.25”.

After competing at either St. Olaf or U of M meets this weekend, both teams will travel back to St. Olaf to participate in the Indoor MIAC Championships on Feb 22 and 23.

This article was originally published in the Feb. 15, 2019 issue.