Shelby Bradley | Sports Co-Editor
On Friday and Saturday, Feb. 26-27, the Buena Vista University (BVU) track and field teams hosted the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) Championships inside the Lamberti Recreation Center.
On the women’s side beginning with the field events junior Morganne Haer walked away with the long jump All-IIAC title with a jump of 17 ft. 4in. and teammate Shania Wunschel placed 5th with a 15ft. 10in. jump. In the high jump two Beavers placed in the top five. Freshman, Brooke Runneberg was the runner-up with a 5ft. 2in. jump, while freshman teammate Victoria Leffler placed third with a jump of 5ft. Leffler later claimed runner-up in the triple jump event, jumping 34ft. 3in.
“With it being the conference meet everyone had the expectations of performing their absolute best. There’s the added pressure of wanting to not just do well for yourself, but to also do well to score points for the team so that we as a whole can be represented well in the conference,” Haer said. “We have talked a lot about getting BV noticed and I think this helped give extra motivation and adrenaline for us to run well this past weekend.”
Junior Mallory Spear was the ring leader for the running events placing in the top five in three of her four events. These events included the 400 meter dash (3rd), 200 meter dash (4th) and the 4 x 400 meter relay (4th) consisting of freshman Sybbie Sears, Haer and Spear, and senior Martina Smith.
On the men’s side, freshman Drew Beall won runner-up in shot put with a throw of 48 ft. 6 in. and teammate Chase Bonner placed 7th with a throw of 45 ft. 9 in. Sophomore Garrett Rohlk placed 6th in the men’s weight throw with a throw of 51 ft. 6 in. Junior Kyle Wessling placed 5th overall in the heptathlon and broke his previous school record by 145 points with 4,393 points.
Freshman Moussa Kuyateh was the lone All-IIAC title for the men in the 60 meter dash with a time of 6.98, just short of a school record. Junior Ben Sampson, however, broke not only a school record but a championship record as well in the 800 meter run held by previous teammate Seth Woodson, with a runner-up performance and a 1:53.19 time.
“After I finished the race he [Seth] was one of the first people there to congratulate me. It is surprising to me that I beat Seth’s record, knowing everything that he accomplished in his track career at BV,” Sampson said. “I really owe breaking the record to Seth by being the example of what it takes to compete at a high level.”
There were several stellar performances throughout the meet with multiple top five finishes but the Beavers nonetheless took 6th (women) and 7th (men) overall as a team. The Beavers will run in the Last Chance Meet this Friday, Mar. 4, in order to try and earn a qualifying spot for the NCAA Championships in Grinnell the following weekend Mar. 11-12.
Photo by Nic Gibson
