Track and Field Teams Open Outdoor Season at Central Invite

The Buena Vista track and field teams opened their respective outdoor seasons over the weekend by taking part in the Central College Invite on Saturday.  The women’s team finished seventh overall out of 14 teams, while the men landed a seventh-place finish out of 14.

On the women’s side, the Beavers had three individuals qualify into the finals of the 100 meter dash, led by freshman Maggie Marker’s third-place overall finish in a time of 12.66.  Fellow freshman Casey James was sixth in 13.02, while freshman Laura Eberly was seventh at 13.20.  Eberly was later 17^th in the 200 meter dash (27.40).

Abby Hesnard placed 10^th in the 400 meter dash in a time of 1:02.59, but secured the second-fastest time among Iowa Conference runners.  She was only two seconds behind the overall winning time.

Rachel Burnette turned in a career-best time in the 100 meter hurdles, reaching the finish line in 16.18 (12^th place).  Her previous best was a 16.45 clocking last year at Simpson College.   She then captured seventh-pace in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:07.86, which was less than second from her career-best.  Paige Miller finished 17^th, but did post a career-best time of 1:13.26, shaving nearly a second off her previous best.

The 4x100 meter relay team took second in a time of 49.62, which is just over a second off of the school record.  The team was edged only by the University of Northern Iowa, which ran a time of 48.20.  The BVU “B” was ninth, but not far behind, finishing in 51.62.

BVU took seventh in the 4x400 meter relay in a time of 4:08.15.  That was the fastest time for the program since 2006 (4:00.88).

Vanessa Fiechtner took seventh in the high jump at 1.43 meters, while Amber Riedy was fifth in the pole vault at 2.95m.  Katie Shearer scored points in the triple jump with a leap of 28-11.75, while Bridgett Hasche, Riedy and Erin Laursen took seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, in the javelin throw.

As a team, BVU totaled 34.5 points and was only 5.5 points behind seventh-place Coe College.

On the men’s side, Peter Winterton took 12^th overall in the 200 meter dash in a time of 22.84, but was only a second behind the winning time of 21.87.  He finished sixth among all IIAC competitors.

Ryan Eberly was second in the 400 meter dash with a career-best time of 49.79.  That time is 1.60 off of matching the school record.  His previous best time came last year (50.45) at the Iowa Conference Championships.

Seth Woodson took ninth in the 800 meter run at 1:56.71 and was only three seconds off the winning pace.  It was also two seconds faster than his best indoor time of the year.

Alex Lamp took eighth in the 5,000 meter run (16:10.22), a time that was seven seconds faster than his only indoor time of the year.

Andrew Smith, last year’s league champion in the 400 meter hurdles, took third overall in a time of 55.85.  He was topped only by UNI’s Ryan Newtoff (54.49) and Truman State’s (55.70).  Grant Hoffman took 10^th for the Beavers in a time of 58.62.

The 4x100 meter relay team was sixth with a time of 43.59, a mark that’s only two seconds from a school record.  It was only two-tenths out of fifth and one second from fourth.  The 4x400 team was fifth in a time of 3:22.94.  BVU only ran faster than that time once last year in six races.

Freshman Nolan Sampson placed fifth in the high jump with a leap of 6-0.00, while Stefan Petersen was second in the long jump with a leap of 6.55 meters.  DJ Smith and Branden Schultz went sixth and seventh, respectively, in the pole vault.

Collin Mann finished sixth in the javelin throw with a toss of 45.03 meters.  Mason Nielsen was eighth (42.57 meters).  The duo captured the second and third best tosses amongst IIAC athletes.

As a team, BVU calculated 46 points to finish eight points ahead of Luther College.  The Beavers, however, were only four points out of tying for third.  Only Central College (106.5 points) finished in front of BVU among the five IIAC teams which took part.

Buena Vista will return to action on Saturday, April 7, when it takes a trip south to take part in the North Texas Classic, which is held in Denton, Texas.  It’ll then return to take part in the Sioux City Relays on April 13 and 14.

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