Bobbi Jo Evers, staff writer

The Augsburg Womens and Mens Track and Field teams competed in the Vanessa Seljeskog Classic hosted in St. Paul by Macalester College on Saturday, Jan. 21. The meet was their second indoor Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) meet of the season. The men’s team scored sixth out of eight teams with 47 points while the women’s team scored eighth out of nine teams with 30 points. Personal bests ran rampant throughout the meet, with multiple athletes starting the season off strong. 

For the women’s team, first year sprinter Allison Hookom won the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.65 seconds, her personal best as well as beating the previous meet record for that race.  Hookom also ran in the 200-meter dash, with a personal record split time of 27.13 seconds. The women’s team also had their first relay team since the 2020 season, consisting of Hookom, junior sprinter Mya Bishop, first-year sprinter CC Cesare and sophomore sprinter Santrice Rodriguez. The relay had a time of 1:52.55, placing third out of the eight teams. For long distance runners, junior Gracie Johnson set a new personal record with a time of 11:35.18 for the 3000-meter run. Johnson bested her time from the previous meet by over 30 seconds. 

The Auggie men held their own on the track as well, with junior sprinter and mid-distance runner Getinat Asfaw setting two personal records for the day. Asfaw finished second with a time of 53.00 in the 400-meter dash and second in the 1000-meter run with a time of 2:36.45. Senior sprinter Varney Conneh placed second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.04, just barely missing a personal record. Finally, fresh off a cross country season where he went all the way to the NCAA national meet, standout first-year Mohammed Bati had two personal records and placed in the top five in both events. Bati placed fourth with a time of 4:24.13 in the mile run and fifth with a time of 8:48.36 in the 3000-meter run. 

Friends, family and fans will have much to look forward to as the track and field season progresses. While the Augsburg Track and Field teams are both currently dominated by newcomers, this meet has clearly proved that will be a strength moving forward. The Auggies will begin the month of February by staying close to home, competing in Minneapolis at a meet hosted by the University of Minnesota on Saturday, Feb. 4. To find more information on the full list of Track and Field athletes and their statistics, visit the Augsburg Athletics website.