Central Track and Field hosts Dutch Athletics Classic
Central College
PELLA— A pair of injury-depleted Central College track and field rosters competed at their home invitational Saturday, with the men finishing sixth and the women taking fourth at the Dutch Athletics Classic.
The men finished in sixth place out of 10 teams with 64 points. William Penn won the team championship with 99 points. The women finished in fourth place out of 11 teams with 77 points. Division II Truman State (Mo.) won the team title with 122 points.
Both the men’s and women’s teams were without several key components this weekend due to injury. Most notably, the women were without the services of Abi Davis (junior, West Des Moines, Dowling Catholic HS), the runner-up at last year’s national championship in the 60 meters.
“I’m really proud of everybody, it was a great team effort this weekend,” coach Joe Dunham said. “We’re not close to where we want to be but it was at least a good start, so we’re pleased with that. We’re pretty banged up right now, our team is dealing with some injuries and we need to get some people healthy.”
Larson leads the way in the heptathlon—
Saturday marked the return of the dynamic multi-eventer Eric Larson (senior, Waverly, Waverly, Shell-Rock HS) to the Dutch lineup. A National Champion indoors and outdoors in 2013, Larson missed most of 2014’s indoor season and all of 2014’s outdoor season due to injury. He returned in a big way this weekend, coming up just shy of his personal best in winning the heptathlon with a score of 5,239. Larson won six of the seven individual events and distanced himself from the second place finisher by 631 points.
“Eric Larson had a great weekend,” Dunham said. “He finished 38 points off his personal best and his own school record. To have to take a year hiatus from track and then do what he did in his return today was pretty cool to see.”
Logan Mulford (sophomore, Mount Pleasant) picked up where he left off in the high jump, resetting his personal best with a leap of 6-10.25 to win the event. His previous mark of 6-9.75 from a meet in December had him top three in Division III.
“We’re really excited about Logan Mulford,” coach Joe Dunham said. “He continues to jump consistently, which has been really great. I was really happy with his performance in the high jump today.”
Drew Jackson (senior, Johnston) ran an impressive 8:44.36 in the 3000 meters to finish second behind Morningside’s Jay Welp. Jackson battled through a difficult cross country season full of injury and illness and is starting to get back to normal.
“I was really proud of Drew Jackson in the 3000 meters,” Dunham said. “I thought he looked great and had a great race. He was able to come off a tough cross country season that was riddled with injury to be able to come out and finish just a few seconds off of his personal best.”
Phipps wins 1000 meters, Dutch finish fourth—
Elin Phipps (junior, Boone) was the Central women’s lone individual winner on the weekend. Her time of 3:03.66 was nearly four seconds faster than the runner-up in the 1000 meters. She was also less than a second from resetting her personal best time in the event.
Lorell Stuht (sophomore, Loveland, Colo.) added almost two and half feet to her personal best in the weight throw with a toss of 51.0.75 that was good for fourth place. Stuht finished fifth in the Iowa Conference last year as a freshman, but the sophomore has her sights set even higher than the Iowa Conference this season.
“She still has work to do to qualify for the national meet, but today was a great start for her,” Dunham said. “I know that a big goal of hers is to try and qualify for nationals, so I was really happy with her performance.”
Senior Meredith Zimmerman (Urbandale) set a new personal best by over three-tenths of a second in the 55 hurdles, in which she placed third.
“Meredith Zimmerman also had a great day today,” Dunham said.” “She ran extremely well in the hurdles and ended up having an excellent day.”
A 2014 outdoor national qualifier in the high jump, Hillary Hotz (senior, Fort Dodge, St. Edmond HS) finished in second with a height of 5-2.50. Fellow senior Taylor Beckman (Panora, Panorama HS) earned points for the Dutch in two events. Her time of 1:03.51 in the 400 meters was good for seventh place and her leap of 15-7 in the long jump was good for fourth place.
Central will head to Northfield, Minnesota to take part in the St. Olaf Quadrangular next Friday night. The Dutch will face off against a trio of Minnesota schools in Bethel, Gustavus Adolphus, and St. Olaf. Field events are set to start at 4 p.m. with running events to follow at 4:30 p.m.
