Central’s Coleman wins MVP at Grinnell
Central College
GRINNELL—Felicia Coleman (sophomore, Houston, Texas, J. Frank Dobie HS) was named the track events most valuable performer of the meet after a trifecta of top-three performances as the Central College men’s and women’s track and field squads won three events at the Darren Young Classic Saturday.
The Dutch men racked up 83 points for a third-place finish in a stacked field. McMurray (Texas) took the men’s title with 120 points. Central’s women scored 49 points, good for a fifth-place finish. Iowa Conference rival Wartburg scored 169 points for the win.
Coleman leads women—Coleman started her day with a runner-up finish in the 60 meters (7.95 seconds), just four-hundredths of a second off her school record, before a win in the 200 meters (26.27). She capped the meet anchoring the third-place 4×400 relay (4:07.61) along with teammates Allie McBroom (freshman, Runnells, Southeast Polk HS), Rachel Northrup (freshman, Griswold), and Miranda Wehde (sophomore, Tipton).
“Felicia had the kind of meet that we’ve come to expect from her,” said coach Joe Dunham. “She’s one of the best sprinters in the region and she reminded us of that today.”
Other notable performances on the women’s squad include a runner-up finish for Northrup in the 400 meters (1:00.25) and third-place finishes for Caitlin Wilson (senior, Oakland, Riverside HS) in the high jump (5-0.25) as well as the distance medley relay (13:25.13) squad of Kaity Sharp (sophomore, Dike, Dike-New Hartford HS), Camie Kibbee (freshman, Mason City), Sarah Mueller (freshman, Urbandale), and Alyssa Eaves (freshman, Johnston).
“Camie ran a great leg on the distance medley,” said Dunham. “She’s quickly learning what it takes to be good at the college level.”
Horton wins two—Freshman Eli Horton (Runnells, Southeast Polk HS) had the best performance of his rookie season, taking the 5,000 meters (15:09.41) after anchoring the winning distance medley relay (10:35.09) with teammates Jamie Vander Veer (freshman, Knoxville), Phil Heisterkamp (junior, Jefferson, Jefferson-Scranton HS), and Ben Schornack (junior, Urbandale).
“Eli ran a tough 5k on his second race of the day,” said Dunham. “He beat a very good field.”
Central’s “B” distance medley completed a 1-2 sweep for the Dutch as Andrew Hamer (senior, Murray), Jordan Sump (sophomore), Clayton Fritz (sophomore, Indianola), and Tim Shepherd (freshman, Knoxville) finished in a time of 10:45.89. Steve Messerschmitt (sophomore, Neola, Tri-Center HS) and Aaron Fuller (junior, Aberdeen, S.D., Roncalli HS) also collected runner-up finishes in the shot put (49-11.25) and pole vault (14-5.25) respectively.
“Steve Messerschmitt had a breakthrough day in the shot put,” said Dunham. “He has been consistently throwing at a high level in practice, so it was just a matter of time before he got a big one at a meet.”
Kyle Wood (senior, Newton) took third in the 400 meters (50.49), Austin O’Brien (sophomore, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley HS) was third in the 800 meters (1:57.08), Eric Larson (freshman, Waverly, Waverly-Shell Rock HS) placed third in the 60 hurdles (8.63), and Tyler Crouse (senior, Hedrick, Pekin HS) took third in the weight throw (54-3.25).
“Overall we had another good showing,” said Dunham. “We competed against some really good teams for the second week in a row. These are the types of meets that get you ready to be your best when it counts.”
Dunham also cited the recent heavy training load.
“We’re at a point right now where everyone is tired,” said Dunham. “We’re working them hard in practice but despite that we were still able to come away with some good marks.”
The Dutch will travel to Iowa City Friday for the University of Iowa Invitational.
“The meet at Iowa next week is just going to be a tune-up for conference,” said Dunham. “We’ll start scaling back the training pretty soon and we expect to see some good things.”
