Wednesday and Thursday, April 12 and 13, the Buena Vista University (BVU) men and women’s track and field teams headed to Northwestern College for the Red Raider Open, a non-conference meet.

There were several top 5 places held both on the men and women’s side. For the women’s, senior sprinter, Mallory Spear placed 3rd and 2nd in the 100 and 200 meter dashes respectively. Senior hurdler, Madison Spear, placed 1st and 4th in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles respectively. The 4×100 and 4×400 meter relays came in at 3rd and 4th adding more points for the Beavers. Sophomore, Brooke Runneberg, placed 2nd in the high jump and sophomore, Victoria Leffler, placed 3rd in the triple jump.

“Although it was a short week of practice, everybody seemed to show up and perform their hardest. It was a good week for competition, and it just prepares us to be one step closer to being ready for conference,” Runneberg said.

Junior, Shania Wunschel, placed 5th in the long jump while junior, Cristyn (CC) Eischeid, placed 5th and 4th in the shot put and hammer throw respectively.

The men’s team also had several top 5 finishes. Senior, Justin Sacker, placed 5th in 400 meter hurdles and senior, Kyle Wessling, placed 4th in the decathlon. There were a lot of strong performances in the field events as the throwers held many of the top 5 finishes. Sophomores, Drew Beall and Chase Bonner placed 2nd and 3rd in the shot put respectively, while junior, Garrett Rohlk, placed 4th in the hammer throw. Beall also placed 5th in the discus throw. Senior, Brenna Dostal placed 4th in the 100 meter dash.

Because the Red Raider Open was a non-conference meet, BVU’s performances were not scored. However, there is still much to take away from the meet according to head coach Colton Slack.

“It was a very short week for the team and we only had a few days to recover from the previous meet. However, the team did a great job preparing and competing hard,” Slack said. “Overall, I was very pleased with how the team handled themselves.”

The Beavers head to Sioux City this Friday and Saturday, April 21 and 22, for the Sioux City Relays hosted by Morningside College.