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Scots win again
Release Date:
February 28, 2009
MONMOUTH, Ill. —
The men captured their 10th Midwest Conference
team title and the women their eighth at the 2009 Indoor
Championship Track & Field Meet held this weekend at Monmouth
College.
“This was a good team win,” said Coach Roger Haynes who
was named the Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year. “Every single
person we had contributed in some way. Overall, it wasn’t as
overwhelming a win as we have had in the past.”
Monmouth’s men sat in fourth place going into Saturday’s final
round, but found enough points on the second day to overtake first
found leader Grinnell. The Scots’ 149 points was narrowly enough to
hold off second place Illinois College, winning by just 24 points.
The women had an easier time with a 195-137 cushion to best Carroll
for the women’s title. Junior thrower Gloria Lehr earned the
women’s co-Most Outstanding Field Performer.
“We talked last week about doing well with each entry,” said
Haynes. “The women did a really good job of that. They ran improved
times, or very near that in almost every event. They did a really
nice job.”
The women led from start to finish, but the men had to overtake
three teams on the final day to pull out another conference title.
Along with the usual cast of consistent performers, the Scots’ men
found some success in unfamiliar places.
“Some of our lesser-known kids really saved us this weekend,”
said Haynes. “(Freshman) Paul Terpening in the throws had big
personal-bests. Our young sprinters, Saidu Sesay and Kyle
Prout, were both very good. Logan Weir scoring for
us in the 800 was big considering he had only competed in that event
the last two weekends.”
Sesay, Prout and Aaron Daverin made up more than two
thirds of the field in the 55 dash finals. Sesay was fourth, Prout
fifth and Daverin sixth.
Logan Hohl joined first day winners Tim Bentz,
Luke Reschke, Jake Stott, Ryan Hardman and
Brock McAnally as conference champions. Hohl and Reschke
successfully defended their titles Saturday afternoon. Hohl clocked
a 7.78 to repeat as the 55-meter hurdles champion. Reschke ran a
Huff Athletic Center record to break the tape for the third straight
year in the 400-meter dash, winning with a provisional time of
49.41. Stott placed fourth and Hohl fifth.
Stott, Reschke and Hohl just missed the awards stand, but gained
valuable points on Illinois College in the 200-meters Saturday when
only one Blue Boy scored. Stott and Reschke finished fourth and
fifth, Hohl was seventh.
“Those three guys (Stott, Reschke, Hohl), have been very
consistent for us,” praised Haynes. “They run multiple races and we
expect them to be good every time.”
That trio, plus Hardman, finished in second in the 4x400 relay
and improved their provisional qualifying time with a 3:19.37, less
than a half second back of winner Carroll.
While the sprinters were having a day Saturday, Monmouth’s
distance runners added valuable points. The distance medley relay
team of Patrick Mundschenk, Jon Welty, Shane
Reschke and Geoff Bird ran to a fourth place finish.
Damon Bautista placed third in the 800, just over a second out
of first. Weir finished sixth and Bentz was seventh.
“If there was a swing event, that was probably it,” said Haynes
of the 800-meters. “IC had to run their three guys in the distance
medley relay and committed a lot to that. It’s a really short
turnaround and none of our kids ran in that. I can credit our DMR
guys with giving us the chance to gain ground in the 800 – Jon,
Geoff, Shane and Patrick. That allowed some other people to be fresh
for the rest of the meet. Shane was the best he’s been all year in
the quarter. Pat ran a personal-best in his split. Those guys ran
very well to put us fourth in the DMR.”
Matt Hassler led a trio of Scots in a top five finish in
the high jump. Hassler and Sean Wells each cleared 6’6” and
Tyler Hannam made the height of 6’4” to complete the 3-4-5
finish.
“The high jump guys have trained really well,” reported Haynes.
“They picked up some big points for us on Saturday. Matt finished
ahead of Sean and Tyler for the first time. He jumped his
season-best under very important circumstances.”
Nick Wright, Michael Blodgett and Hardman added
more points for the Scots in the triple jump. Wright placed fifth,
Blodgett and Hardman finished seventh and eighth.
Terpening unleashed a personal-best throw of 46’3’1/2” to capture
fourth in the weight throw. Sam Cokinos was seventh.
A day after the Scots’ women throwers finished 1-2-3 in the shot
put, freshman Amanda Streeter threw 48’1-1/4” to win the
weight throw just ahead of teammate Tanesha Hughes who
uncorked a personal-best 47’8”. Lehr, who led the first day trifecta
in the shot, placed fourth.
“The women’s field events were definitely the difference,”
praised Haynes of his throwers and jumpers. “Tanesha, Gloria and
Amanda did an outstanding job. That’s a senior, junior and freshman.
We’ve got some very talented throwers behind them. It would be nice
if we could do what a lot of conferences do and use a total number
of entries. For example, you could use five throwers and only run
one 800 runner.”
Hughes also has the distinction of scoring at the conference meet
after just one week of competition and very limited practice time.
The multi-sport senior just completed her basketball career and
captured the league’s scoring and rebounding crowns.
Shannon Turczyn completed her dominance in the 55-meter
hurdles, capturing her fourth straight league title in the event.
She broke her own school and Midwest Conference record, winning by
more than a half second with an 8.33 clocking to move up to sixth in
the national rankings. Katie Vaccarello finished fifth.
“Shannon’s not the powerful sprinter in the 55 hurdles as some of
the women at the national meet are,” said Haynes. “But, once she
gets over the top of the first few hurdles and gets a rhythm she’s
extremely good.”
Good in the 55-dash were Jae Moore, Brittany Lowdermilk
and Turczyn. Moore finished second by .01 seconds, Lowdermilk
was sixth and Turczyn seventh.
“The 55 girls were very good for us,” said Haynes. “Jae was good
in all her events – the 55, 200 and ran on the sprint medley, 4x2
and 4x4 relays. She had a great weekend. Shannon contributed in the
same three relays as well.”
Megan McKenna, Whitney Didier and Erin Degelman
finished in the top four of the pole vault. McKenna improved her
provisional mark and equaled her personal-best, clearing 11’6-1/4”
to place second. Dider was third and Degelman fourth.
McKenna, Moore and Morgan Leffel made the awards stand in
the triple jump. McKenna took second, Moore sailed a personal-best
34’0-3/4” to tie Leffel for third.
“The jumpers did a very good job for us,” reported Haynes. “Megan
had a good meet in all three of her jumps – the pole vault, triple
jump and long jump. Jae and Morgan did a nice job in the triple jump
Saturday. They both were first-jump jumpers, so that took some
pressure off to hit 34 feet on their first jumps.”
Kaci Lierman, Moore, Vaccarello, and Turczyn placed second
in the 4x400 relay. Moore and Turczyn clocked personal-bests in the
200. Moore placed fourth in 26.55 and Turczyn was seventh with a
time of 26.90. Lierman and Leffel scored in the 400-meters,
finishing sixth and eighth.
“Kaci may be our unsung hero,” claimed Haynes. “She really hadn’t
been able to practice for the last couple of weeks due to an injury.
She hadn’t run a step in practice over that time. For her to be able
to run near her season best in the 400 and then help us in the 4x4
was a pretty courageous performance. She’s pretty tough.”
Tough, too were the performances of Mary Kate Beyer and
Katie Staab in the distance events. Beyer picked up a
third in the 3000 to go with a third in the mile on Friday. Staab,
who finished eighth in the mile, and Whitney Didier ran
scoring performances in the 800. Staab and Didier finished within a
half second of each other to finish seventh and eighth. Beyer,
Lindsie Pettie, Kanisha Lampkin and Bri Flynn took
fourth in the distance medley relay. On Friday Beyer and Staab
finished 2-3 in the 5,000. Beyer clocked a time of 18:48.23 and
Staab ran a personal-best by nearly 30 seconds with an 18:57.87.
“Mary Kate and Katie ran incredibly tough combinations last
weekend,” said Haynes. “They did what we talk about when you run a
difficult combination of races. You need to start at the front and
not worry about saving anything. They were tremendous is the 5K
Friday night. To run four races in 24 hours is asking a lot from
distance runners.”
In Friday’s action, McAnally cleared a personal-best to win the
men’s pole vault. His height of 15’0-1/4” was nearly a foot better
than his nearest competitor. Hardman, Bentz, Stott and Luke Reschke
teamed for a win in the sprint medley relay. They finished less than
a second ahead of runnerup Grinnell by clocking a 3:37.80.
Blodgett took third in the long jump at 21’11-3/4”. Wright placed
fifth at 21’6”. A personal-best of 49’4-1/2” in the shot put placed
Cokinos third. Peyton Lumzy was seventh at 46’8-1/4” and
Terpening took ninth with a throw of 44’11-3/4”.
“What Terpening has accomplished in the shot as a freshman is
outstanding,” said Haynes. “He was around 45 feet in high school.
Usually athletes will lose about 10 feet when they switch to the
heavier shot in college. He’s recovered that 10 feet and was very
good with a PR by more than four feet in the weight on Saturday.
That was a nice plus since we needed every point we could muster.”
Bird raced to a seventh place finish in the 5,000-meters with a
time of 15:55. Baustista took fifth in the mile, running a 4:30.05.
Lehr led the strong showing by the women’s throwers Friday,
improving her provisional mark in the shot while setting a school
and conference record. Her throw of 44’8” put her in first over
Hughes and Streeter. Hughes’ toss of 42’11” and Streeter’s mark of
41’8-1/2” were both personal-bests.
Monmouth’s two relays placed third on the first day of
competition. The sprint medley team of Moore, Turczyn, Leffel and
Amy Aghababian clocked a 4:22.47. Lowdermilk and Vaccarello
joined Moore and Turczyn to run a 1:48.15 in the 4x200.
Heather Hull equaled her personal-best with a high jump of
5’1-1/4” to tie for second. Sarah Stinson’s mark of 4’11-1/2”
placed her eighth. McKenna took third in the long jump at 17’6”.
Leffel was fifth with a leap of 16’6”.
“Heather really came through Friday night,” said Haynes. “As a
sophomore, that was her best conference meet by far.”
With two more conference titles under his belt, Haynes is just
hoping next year won’t be quite so stressful.
“The meet complexion should change quite a bit next year for the
women,” predicted Haynes. “There were some teams that were very
senior dominated. We have some good seniors, but we’ve got some
really good freshmen and sophomores who will keep us pretty solid
for a few more years.”
Monmouth will travel to UW-Stevens Point next weekend for the
last chance to improve their provisional qualifying marks for the
NCAA Indoor Championships Mar. 13-14.
Men's
Indoor Track |
Women's Indoor Track
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