Rundle’s big day leads Scots’ men to victory

Release Date: February 15, 2005

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Last week, Monmouth College’s men’s track team member Anthony Welty said the Fighting Scots’ new status as the No. 1 team in Division III track and field “will put a target on us as a team.”

The other 14 schools competing at Saturday’s Fighting Scots Invitational found out that it’s very hard to hit a moving target, as Monmouth sprinted, leaped and vaulted to a convincing victory over the field. The Scots scored 165 points to top runner-up Loras by 63.

“The kids really rose to the occastion,” said MC track coach Roger Haynes. “Overall, we had great consistency across the board.”

In the process of taking the meet title, two men’s relay records fell, and Tyler Rundle was a part of both first-place groups. With a 49.3-second 400-meter leg in the distance medley relay, he helped the Scots set a school record of 10:12.52 and qualify provisionally for next month’s national meet. Also contributing to the time, which was the ninth-fastest in the nation in Division III, were Zach Barr, Kel Bond and Welty.

Rundle added a 22.2-second leadoff leg in the 4x200, which made it four times around the Huff Athletic Center track in 1:29.40. Joining him were Brad Gross, Bradley Franks and Blake Boma.

While those two relays set school records, Rundle’s best performance might have come late in the day in the 200-meter dash. Competing against a solid field that included All-American Danny Tutskey, Rundle blazed his way to the sixth-fastest 200-meter dash in the history of Monmouth’s illustrious indoor track program, winning the event in 22.29. Earlier, Tutskey, a graduate of UW-LaCrosse, had won the 55-meter dash in 6.42 seconds.

While Rundle starred individually on the men’s side, Christina Reiner had a meet that was nearly as impressive for the women. In the field events, she set a school record in the pole vault (10’0-1/2), high jumped 5’0 and long jumped 16’10-3/4. She scored in all three events, including a second in the long jump and a third in the pole vault and is now ranked No. 1 in the Midwest Conference in both events.

Reiner also ran times of 7.68 seconds in the 55-meter dash and 28:42 in the 200-meter dash to rank fourth and seventh, respectively, in those events in the conference. For good measure, she ran a 27.4-second leg on the 4x200 squad that won the event in a conference-best time of 1:49.84. Joining her on that first-place team were Brenda Herrera, Megan McKenna and Kila Cox.

It was the lone victory for the women, who placed fourth out of 15 schools. The other two top three finishes for the women came from Tiffanie York, who took second in the 3000-meter run (10:59.11) and third in the 800-meter run (2:26.75). York also ran a leg on the Scots’ fourth-place 4x400 squad, which ran an MWC-best time of 4:11.73.

Also scoring individual points for the women were Herrera in the 55-meter dash and 200-meter dash; Cox in the 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash; Jessica White, McKenna and Kelly Caruso in the pole vault; and Amy Horneck in the triple jump.

On the men’s side, Haynes said Monmouth improved its national ranking point total in several events. The distance medley relay was an obvious one, and the Scots added a second strong pole vaulter, as Dane Justice cleared a lifetime-best 14’5 to place second behind teammate Johnny Henkins.

Other improvements came from Boma in the 55-meter hurdles and 400-meter dash (a first-place time of 50.94); Albert Greene in the long jump (22’1); and Josh England in the 55-meter hurdles. Boma qualified provisionally for nationals in the hurdles with his runner-up time, which is ranked ninth in the nation.

Bond won the mile in 4:30.30 and Barr took first in the 5000-meter run by more than 30 seconds (15:23.79). Welty was second in the 800-meter run (2:02.78), while Tim Frank was runner-up in the high jump (6’5-1/2). Greene placed third in the triple jump (45’5-1/4).

Also scoring individual points for the men were Franks in the 200-meter dash; Kyle Schierer in the 800-meter run; Aaron Etienne in the 5000-meter run; Brandon Hurckes in the 55-meter hurdles; Evan Harrison and James Van Dyke in the high jump; Peter Sprecher in the pole vault; Jason Salmon in the long jump; Alex Stuart in the triple jump; Jeff Rebholz in the shot put and weight throw.

In addition to having his athletes set personal bests in approximately 60 percent of their performances, Haynes was also very pleased with the volunteers, work study students and track alumni who turned out to help the major meet run smoothly.

Men's Indoor Track  |  Women's Indoor Track