The Gusties headed to Mankato on May 4th to compete in the Minnesota State University Twilight meet where both the women’s and men’s teams registered strong performances.

Multiple members of the women’s team registered personal bests and top performances around the board. Junior MaKayla Stowell led the Gustavus sprinters as she recorded personal bests in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes while also finishing second in both events.

Sophomore Katie Keelin also set a personal record of her own in the hammer throw, beating her original best by a distance of three feet and eight inches while finishing first. Junior Bailey Van Den Heuvel also has a personal best in the throw with a distance of 151-11, good for fourth place.

“Today was a good meet for us all the way around. The throwers stepped up and hit some big PR’s. We saw lots of good performances and that is what we’re looking for heading into conference.” Head Coach Dale Bahr said.

On the track, the duo of Sophomore Tierney Winter and Senior Lydia Hayes finished second and third in the 1,500-meter run, respectively.

On the men’s side, Junior Michael Hensch and Freshmen Taylor Rooney continued their dominant seasons, with both registering top finishes in their events.

Hensch led the Gustie throwers where he finished first in the javelin while placing second in both the hammer throw and shot put. His throw of 189 in the hammer throw set a new personal record for Hensch, originally broken the week prior at the Drake Alternative.

“We had some distance guys do some pacing and I think we were a little tired, but we definitely had some strong individual performances today,” Head Coach Dale Bahr said.

Rooney finished first in the 110-meter hurdles and also set a personal best in the event with a time of 14.63. Freshmen Jeremy Gilbertson finished first in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:17.71.

“We are looking forward to next week. It has kind of been a tough season and it’s fun to get some good weather and now we will see how will stack up against the rest of the conference next week,” Bahr said.

The Gusties would then move onto the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships last Friday where the men finished seventh while the women finished sixth.

In day one, the women earned 25 points and finished the day in sixth place out of eleven total teams.

Both Keelin and Van Den Heuvel earned points in the hammer throw where they placed third and fourth while Freshmen Bella Klabough earned three points from her sixth place finish in the discus.

Sophomore Alex Anderson added added six points to the Gustie total with a third place finish in the high jump. Additionally, the 4×800-meter relay team, consisting of Senior Lydia Hayes, Sophomore Haley Anderson and Freshmen Josie Blake and Kourtney Kulseth finished fourth and added five points.

“We’re in a really good position having lots of people available to score points tomorrow in the finals. Definite shout out to the 4×800 relay team, all four of those ladies did not have a chance to score in an individual event but they got together and embraced their opportunity,” said Coach Bahr.

On day two, the women finished up their events with a score of 75, good for sixth place overall.

Stowell and Senior Marisa Morgan both registered eight points with their second place finishes. Morgan threw a personal best 131-9 in the javelin and Stowell ran a 12.28 in the 100-meter dash while also adding a point in the 200-meter dash.

Also adding points to the Gustie total were Winter in the 1,500, Senior Sadie Klug in the 5,000-meter and Senior Olivia Rosenow in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Junior Abbie Schnabel also added five points with a fourth place finish in the 800-meter run.

The men’s team mirrored the women in the standings, also finishing in sixth and tallied 23 points.

“We had some good races and performances and should be able to score some more points tomorrow in the throws,” said Bahr

Of the 23 points, Hensch scores 18 of them, winning the javelin throw with a distance of 192-1 and also placing second in the shot put at 52-5.25. Additionally, Freshmen Andrew Stumbo finished fifth in the 10,000 meter run and earned the Gusties four points.

Day two for the men saw them drop a spot in the standings, finishing seventh overall with a final total of 63 points.

“We got more points than we were predicted to get to it was good to see,” Coach Bahr said.

Rooney won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.69 while also finishing second in the high jump at 6 foot 5 inches.

Hensch headlined the Gustie throwers, finishing second in discus and third in hammer throw for a total of 14 points.