Central men take title at St. Olaf track meet
Central College
NORTHFIELD, MINN. — The Central College men’s track and field team produced eight event-winners on its way to a team title at St. Olaf, while the women’s squad finished third.
Central’s sixth-ranked men’s team took the team title with a score of 171.50, outpacing 13th-ranked St. Olaf by nearly 50 points. On the women’s side, the Dutch scored 105.50, finishing in third place. St. Thomas (Minn.) won the meet with 171.
Despite the men’s title and a top-three finish by the women, coach Joe Dunham knows his team has a lot of room to improve before the Iowa Conference meet on the last weekend in February.
“This was a little bit of a different meet for us,” Dunham said. “It’s a long trip up here. The team had to sit in the bus for four hours and compete right away. That took an adjustment from our athletes. I’m pleased overall but it’s very clear that today was an early-season meet and we have long way to go. We’re going to have to really focus for the next couple of weeks to get ourselves ready for the conference meet.”
Men use field events, hurdles to win –The men’s team featured winners in four of six field events, including a sweep of the three jumping events on its way to a team title. Central hurdlers also took the top four spots in the 60 meter hurdles.
Freshman Justin Wimbish (Glendale, Ariz., Apollo HS) won his first collegiate meet after uncorking a jump of 20 feet, seven inches. Brian Zahnle (senior, Fulton, Ill.) was victorious in the triple jump with a mark of 41-0.25, narrowly missing his career-best of 41-0.5. Logan Mulford (sophomore, Mount Pleasant) won the high jump with a leap of 6-5.75. Mulford sits in second place in Division III in the event, after a career-best jump of 6-10.25 last weekend at the Dutch Athletics Classic.
Eric Larson (senior, Waverly, Waverly, Shell-Rock HS) led a quartet of Dutch hurdlers in the 60 meter hurdles. Larson registered a time of 8.52 seconds in the finals. Dan Romerman (junior, Iowa City), Hunter Pollpeter (freshman, Wever, Fort Madison HS), Andrew Cowles (freshman, Bloomfield, Davis County HS) followed close behind in second through fourth positions. All four hurdlers finished under 8.78.
“With our hurdlers, I don’t that the times are they want them to be,” Dunham said. “But I thought they still competed hard.”
Larson also took the title in the pole vault with a height of 12-10.75.
Blake Morgan (Story City, Iowa, Roland Story HS) sprinted his way to the top of the field in the 60 meters. The freshman clocked in at 7.32, besting Luke Riveness of Bethel by 0.02 seconds.
“I thought Blake had a really good day in the spirits,” Dunham said. “He was able to win the 60 and have some good things happen.”
Women win four events, finish third – The women’s squad set a handful of personal bests and came out on top in four events on their way to a third-place finish.
Allie McBroom (junior, Runnells, Iowa, Southeast Polk HS) dropped nearly three seconds off her personal best in the 400 meters, finishing in first place with a time of 59.74.
“Allie ran looked good running the 400 today,” Dunham said. “She got out a little hot and was probably a little bit aggressive with her start. We talked about it after and she knew it. I think she’s going to learn it from and she is going to run a lot faster.”
McBroom teamed with an all-American and pair of newcomers to win the 4×400 relay in the final race of the night. The 2014 all-American Abi Davis (junior, West Des Moines, Iowa, Dowling HS) made her 2015 debut in the opening leg of the relay. Newcomers Ashlee Downs (junior, Urbandale, WDM Valley HS) and Kate Patton (freshman, Grand River, Iowa, Murray HS) ran the middle legs before McBroom closed it out with a winning time of 4:02.10.HS)
A week after setting a new personal record in the 55 hurdles, senior Meredith Zimmerman (Urbandale) set a new career-best in the 60 hurdles by 0.24 seconds. She ran a 9.35 in the prelims before recording a winning-time of 9.36 in the finals.
Emma Drees (sophomore, Waukee) showed dramatic improvement in the long jump after unleashing a career-best jump of 16-5.75. Her previous best indoor jump was 16-3 at last year’s Iowa Conference championships.
While both squads will return to action next Friday and Saturday at the Wartburg Select meet in Waverly, Dunham and his coaching staff are also preparing for beyond just next weekend.
“It’s pretty clear that we have a lot of work to do,” Dunham said “We are by no means where we want to be, yet. But Track is a lot about timing and peaking at the right time, and that’s what we’ll try to do. I really trust our coaching staff, I think they know what we need to do to get ourselves ready for when it really counts. We’ll keep working towards that.”
