Shelby Bradley | Sports Co-Editor
Saturday, Feb. 6, the Buena Vista University (BVU) track teams hosted their annual BVU Invite against teams including Northwestern, Waldorf, Wartburg, Midland, Dakot Wesleyan, Dordt, Briar Cliff, Mount Marty, and other Unattached runners.
On the men’s side, senior Austin Groth placed 1st in the 60 meter hurdles race with a time of 8.55 scoring big points for the Beavers early in the meet. Later, junior, Ben Sampson, placed 2nd in the men’s 400 meter dash with a final time of 50.87 which is a new personal record.
“I’m not sure if there were any surprise performances because I know what our team is capable of doing if we compete the right way, but there were some that stood out,” head coach Ryan Schroeder said.
On the field event side of things, senior, Kyle Wessling placed 6th and 12th in the men’s pole vault and long jump respectively with jumps of 9 ft. 8 in. (pole vault) and 18 ft. 9 in (long jump). In the shot put, freshman, Drew Beall placed 4th in the finals with a throw of 44 ft. 11 in. while sophomore, Garret Rohlk, placed 1st in the weight throw with a throw of 51 ft. 1 in. The men finished 6th place overall.
“Honestly, I wasn’t too happy with how I performed. It wasn’t my worst weekend by any means, but I know I could’ve done better,” Wessling said. “Sometimes it’s nice to have meets like this though, t highlights the things I need to work on, and makes those weekends you do perform well all that more special.”
On the women’s side there were several high placings beginning with the running events. Junior, Mallory Spear finished 3rd in the 60 meter dash with a time of 8.06 and later took 1st place in the 400 meter dash with a time of 59.56. Teammate Morganne Haer also placed high in the 400 meter dash in 4th with a time of 1.01.77. Mallory’s twin sister Madison Spear also placed high for the Beavers claiming 1st place in the 60 meter hurdles race with a time of 9.43 which tied for the meet record. Another stand out performance was freshman, Katie Puls, who finished 4th in the 1 mile run with a time of 5:30.10, which set a new school record.
“Both Madison and Mallory winning their respective events in the 60 hurdles and 400 meter stood out. Madison continues to dominate the hurdle races every meet and she keeps dropping time,” Schroeder said. “Mallory finally had a breakout race in the 400 where she broke 60 seconds for the first time indoors. She led the race from the get go which is something we’ve been working on all season!”
In the field events the women continued to dominate. Freshman Victoria Leffler and Brooke Runneberg took 1st and 2nd in the high jump respectively with jumps of 5 ft. 1 in. Leffler set a new PR and Runneberg tied her PR. Runneberg took second place because of the number of attempts used. Leffler also placed 4th in the triple jump with a jump of 33 ft. 7 in. In the long jump Haer took 3rd with a jump of 16 ft. 7 in. In the weight throw senior, Tina Ageson took 3rd with a throw of 45 ft. 10 in. The women finished 4th in the overall meet.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how our student-athletes continue to grow in competiveness and confidence. We have a lot of talent on this roster that can make some noice come the conference championships but it’s up to them to rise to the occasion and believe that they have what it takes to compete at the highest level,” Schroeder said.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will head to the Grinnell Invite this Saturday, Feb. 13 before they compete in the NJCAA Regional Meet the following weekend Feb. 19-20. The Beavers will host the up and coming IIAC Championships Feb. 26-27.
