Track & Field Come Off of Strongest Performance

The Eagles' Track team competed in the Dick Young Invitational Saturday, April 22, in Grinnell, IA and had their strongest team performance of the season. Jacob Kirkwood again got things started for the men's team Saturday morning by throwing a new career best 14.42m on his first attempt, only to smash that mark with his third throw of 15.42m. That throw not only won him the meet for men's shot put but also moved him from 9th place to 3rd place in the NCCAA rankings for men's shot put. Kirkwood would later compete in the men's discus and throw a season best 43.21m, which earned him another 1st place finish at the meet. The Eagle men also saw a strong performance in the men's 400. Willie Felderman, Tanner Van Beek, and Andrew Baldwin each ran a new career best time in the 400 and finished 2nd, 4th, and 5th respectively in the event. The men's team came out with their best season total for points in a meet, scoring 37.

On the women's side, despite just three competitors in Saturday's meet, they would score a collective 20 points. Cara Hodak, back from injury, competed in just her second meet of the season and improved her time in both the 100 and 200. She made finals in the 100 with a time of 13.64 and finished 5th overall. In the 200 she ran a season best 28.07 and finished 5th overall as well. Laura Christensen also posted a new season best in the 200, ending in 11th place. Rebecca Reinertson competed in both hurdle races on Saturday making finals in the 100m hurdles with a school-best time of 18.01 and finishing 3rd overall in the event. She followed that up with another 3rd place finish in the 400m hurdles.

Coach Sauser said, "It was a great team performance! It's always nice when you get to this point in the season to see all the hard work that's put in start to pay off for your athletes, and that was certainly the case at Grinnell."

The Eagles will compete next in the Kip Janvrin Open at Simpson College in Indianola, IA on Thursday, April 27th and Friday, April 28th.