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ST. LOUIS, MO -- The Monmouth College track and field teams faced their toughest competition of the season last weekend at the Washington University Invitational in St. Louis. The Scots finished fifth of 17 teams in the men’s division and the women placed sixth of 19 schools in a meet which featured a mix of NCAA Division I, II and III colleges and strong NAIA teams.
In men’s events Monmouth scored 67 points to trail only team champion Truman State (D-II) [123 points], defending D-III national champion UW-LaCrosse, Lindenwood College (NAIA-I) and UW-Whitewater (D-III). UW-LaCrosse scored 97 points to edge host Washington (88) and UW-Whitewater (83) for the women’s team title with Augustana and Lewis also finishing ahead of Monmouth’s total of 72 points.
Seniors Heather Furrow (Kirkwood,IL/Yorkwood) and Jim Hardesty (Canton,IL/ HS) were the only individual winners for Monmouth. Furrow bettered her NCAA-qualifying time in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, winning by almost two full seconds in a season-best time of 1:02.47, while Hardesty was equally as dominant in claiming the men’s discus throw. Hardesty’s best toss of 153'10" won the event by over eight feet and just missed the provisional distance for the NCAA Outdoor Nationals.
Senior Stacy Brown (Barrington,IL/Lake Zurich) earned second-place points on the track with a 12.50 clocking in the 100 meters and freshman Constance Jackson (Peoria, IL/Woodruff) placed third at 200 meters (25.76). Senior Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL/Prairie Central) smashed her own outdoor school record in the 5000 meters with a third-place effort of 18:36.50, almost 20 seconds better than her previous team best. The Scots’ women’s 4x400 relay also placed third as Furrow and Brown teamed with Christy Keller (Crystal Lake,IL/ Central) and Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/Greenwood) to run a season-best 4:04.50. Furrow, Brown, Jackson and Keller also improved their season-best and provisonal-qualifying time in the 4x100 relay to 49.18 seconds.
Monmouth received its highest men’s performance on the track from its 4x400 relay as Brian Houzenga (Fulton,IL/HS), Toby Vallas (Knoxville,IL/HS), Justin Bryant (Knoxville,IL/HS) and Rich Johnson (Galesburg,IL/HS) placed third with a season-best effort of 3:18.04. Senior Dennis Staggs (Farmington,IL/HS) and Bryant were the Scots’ best individual finishers. Staggs ran 4th in the 110-meter high hurdles and Bryant placed 4th at 100 meters.
Some of the Scots’ strongest efforts came from their field performers. Freshman Cort Mills (Little York,IL/Yorkwood) leaped a season-best 6'8" to claim second in the high jump and attempted the NCAA provisional-qualifying height. Second-place points were also earned by seniors Chris Ferron (Franklin Park,IL/East Leyden) [165'3", javelin] and Chris Sondgeroth (Pekin,IL/Erie) [51'8", shotput]. Tennille McClure (Taylor Ridge,IL/ Rockridge) finished second in the women’s discus (137'0") and third in the shot put (40'7") and Amanda Colgan (Galva,IL/ HS) finished third in the javelin throw (114'0"). Stephenie Schuler (El Paso,IL/HS) and Jeromy Hogan (Virden,IL/HS) each added fourth-place points in the high jump with best jumps of 5'1" and 6'4", respectively.
The Monmouth track teams will travel to Grinnell, Iowa this weekend for the Grinnell Midwestern Classic before returning home to Woll Field for home meets on Saturday, April 25 and Tuesday, April 28.