Central leading both multi-events at Doane

CRETE, NEBRASKA — After day one at the John Green Combined Events, the Central College men’s and women’s track and field athletes are leading the way in the decathlon and the heptathlon.

The Dutch men are the top four spots of the decathlon. Brody Klein (junior, Rainier, Wash.) leads with 3,335 points. Reid Pakkebier (junior, Cedar Rapids, Kennedy HS) is second with 3,266, Lucas Heitz (senior, Adel, ADM HS) is third with 3,204 and Gavin Smith (freshman, Audubon) is fourth with 3,106 points. Grant Miller (freshman, Norwalk) is also seventh with 3,0007 points.

“There’s just not enough days of the week to work on everything,” associate head coach Jim Fuller said. “We’ve been really working on the throws a lot and that really showed up with our shot puts today. We spent a day working on long jump and did that really well today.”

In the women’s heptathlon, Olivia Bohlen (freshman, Belle Plaine) took the top spot in the heptathlon with a huge 200-meter dash to close the day. She’s sitting on 2,697 points through four events. She scored 789 points with her time of 26.09 seconds in the 200 meters.

“I liked her 200 the most of her four events,” Fuller said. “That was a pretty fast time. She had a slight PR in the shot put and a had solid hurdle race with the crosswinds.”

The weather was not in favor of the athletes throughout the day and it isn’t promising for tomorrow.

It wasn’t overly warm today,” Fuller said. “It’s probably going to be a little cooler tomorrow and windy. Unfortunately, the winds are going across the track side to side so were not getting a tailwind from them.

Day two continues at 11 a.m. for all six Dutch athletes.