With only one meet before Conference, the Gusties hope to make much of the little time they’ve had to compete
The story all season for the Gustavus Track and Field teams has been their inability to even get onto the track. Three meets have been cancelled so far this outdoor season, including the Lee Krough Invitational the Gusties were scheduled to host on April 12.
“We have good kids that work hard. You have to have blue-collar kids because it’s the nature of the sport,” said Head Coach Tom Thorkelson. “It’s very hard to know where we stand. We’ve had two meets at a point when we usually have had four or five and we may lose Friday, too.”
In the few meets they have been able to participate in, the Gusties have seen much success, especially on the women’s side.
Junior Lisa Brown competed in the prestigious Drake Relays this past weekend in Des Moines, IA, as the only participating Gustie. Brown threw a career long 156’5” toss in the javelin, shattering the previous school record which she had set last year at 154’6”. That throw earned Brown seventh place overall as well as marking the best toss in all of Division III this spring. She was the only Division III competitor to finish in the top 10, placing higher than competitors from such schools as DePaul, South Dakota, the Air Force academy, and the University of Florida.
“It was exciting to throw at that competiton. It was nice to know that I can compete at that high of a level,” said Brown. “That throw was only my second of the [outdoor] season and it gives me a lot of confidence. There are things that I have to work on, and if I get my technique down, I know I can throw even further.”
Sophomore trackster Kaelene Lundstrom has performed impressively this season as well. In her latest outing at the CSB/SJU multi-event last week, Lundstrom dominated the heptathlon. She set a Gustavus record with 4,349 points in the event. In the seven events of the heptathlon–100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m dash, long jump, javelin and 800m run–Lundstrom notched three first-place finishes, four second-place finishes, and her 5’6” clearing in the high jump is the second highest mark in all of Division III so far this spring. With her score, Lundstrom met the NCAA provisional mark and her point total is the fifth highest in all of Division III.
On the men’s side, the Gusties have had solid performances in the shortened number of meets as well. In the Carleton Relays held two weeks ago, the Gusties finished eighth out of 16 competing schools. The team’s performance was led by Junior Tyler Geyen’s second-place finish in the 100m and fifth-place finish in the javelin.
First-year runner Colby Citrowski finished fourth in the 100m while Senior John Leaf and Sophomore Mark Hartmann finished fourth in the 5,000m and 10,000m respectively. The relay teams finished modestly in Northfield, as well. The 4×400 team, consisting of Citrowski, Geyen, First-year Matt Leeb and Sophomore Mark Scheer– and the sprint medley team– consisting of Sophomores Mike Bollin and Tony Reed, First-year David Erlandson and Senior Ben Treichel, both finished fourth. The 4×800 relay team, consisting of Sophomore Jeremy Bock and First-years Carson Smith, Justin Lund and Jeremy Kuhn, finished seventh.
“It’s hard to bounce back when the weather is uncooperative as it’s been lately. It’s tough to get [personal records] and we’ve only got one chance left on Friday,” said Geyen. “Our goal is to get everyone qualified for conference. It’s such a different environment; everyone seems to throw further and run harder at Conference.”
Coming up for the Gusties is the Gustavus Triangular, tentatively scheduled for this upcoming Friday. Whether or not nature cooperates is a different story. After that meet, the team heads into Championship competition. The MIAC Conference Meet is set for May 9-10 at Hamline with the NCAA Championships following on May 22-24 at Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
“When you don’t have competition, it’s very tough to keep that needed level of intensity,” said assistant coach Jim Malcolm. “Competition breeds success and missing out on those meets doesn’t help us out very much.”