April 29, 1998 

SEASON PRs FOR FIGHTING SCOTS ON HOME TRACK

MONMOUTH,IL --- The Monmouth College track and field teams put home field advantage to their favor this past week, posting several season personal-best performances in two separate meets on Bobby Woll Athletic Field in preparation for the upcoming Midwest Conference Outdoor Track Championships. The MWC Conference Meet is scheduled for May 8-9 at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin.

Monmouth won both men's and women's divisions at a scored meet with Knox, Millikin and Black Hawk East on Saturday April 25 and returned to action on Tuesday afternoon with a non-scored triangular meet against Knox and Illinois College. Several Monmouth athletes came through with PR efforts to improve their standings against MWC league opponents.

Senior Chris Sondgeroth (Pekin,IL/Erie) provided one of the biggest highlights of the week as he surpassed the NCAA automatic qualifying standard in the men's shot put. Sondgeroth, who finished 3rd at last year's NCAA Meet to earn All-American honors, threw a season-best 53'02" on Tuesday to guarantee him a spot at Nationals in May. Another senior, Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL/Prairie Central), continued her assault on the Monmouth distance record books with a new school-record time of 10:50.56 in the 3000-meter run. Knauer, who earlier this spring lowered outdoor marks at 5000 and 10,000 meters, became the first female to break the 11-minute barrier outdoors.

Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/Greenwood) and Sherri Polk (St. Louis,MO/Pattonville) each ran the third-fastest time in team history in their respective event at the Tuesday meet. Vandergriff clocked a career-PR time of 5:00.44 to win the 1500 meters and Polk dropped her lifetime best in the 800 meters to 2:24.07. Senior Frank Schweda (Rolling Meadows,IL/HS) broke the 2-minute barrier for the first time with his winning time of 1:59.06 in the men's 800 and Rita McQuinn (Mason City,IL/Illini Central) turned in the 6th-fastest 5000 time in team history in another season PR of 19:38.85.

Freshman Tony Miles (Moline,IL/HS) ran to victory in the 3000-meter steeplechase, just nipping the 10-minute mark at 9:59.97. Senior Bob Lindstrom (Ridott,IL/Freeport) cracked the 50-foot mark for the first time this season at 50'22" to finish second in the shot put and freshman Eric Holmes (Victoria,IL/ ROWVA) improved his freshman record to 49'10:" to place third. Stefan Clouse (Westmont,IL/HS) (triple jump, 42'4") and Christy Keller (Crystal Lake,IL/Central) (long jump, 16'0") also turned in season-best efforts in the field events.

Monmouth will travel this weekend to Columbia, Missouri to compete in the University of Missouri Tiger Invitational. It will be the final regular-season meet before the teams defend their 1997 conference championships at St. Norbert.