Streit sets new personal best in discus throw
PELLA— On the first day of the Central Invitational, Central College women’s track and field thrower Gillian Streit (senior, Manilla, Harlan HS) set a new personal-best mark in the discus throw Thursday afternoon.
Streit won the event with a toss of 149 feet, 3 inches. That was a four-foot improvement from her previous-best toss and she remains at No. 3 all-time in program history. Kennedy Morris (senior, Earlham) was second in 133-4.
“Gillian basically put herself into nationals already,” coach Brandon Sturman said. “It’s pretty exciting to see.”
Theo Baldus (junior, St. Ansgar) was fourth in the men’s discus throw, reaching 147-11 with on his third toss.
Competing in a field of Division II athletes, Central finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the women’s javelin throw. Krissa Larson (junior, Waverly, Waverly-Shell Rock HS) led the way with a toss of 111-1 with Sydney Burgardt (junior, Britt, West Hancock HS) and Morgan Gallentine (freshman, Webster City) behind her with tosses of 99-6 and 93-9, respectively.
“All of them are still somewhat to new the javelin,” Sturman said. “Those were some pretty exciting PRs to see.”
Men’s triple jumper Brock Lewis (junior, Lathrop, Mo.) won with a leap of 46-1.5 and teammate Danny Devenuto (junior, Plainfield, Ill., North HS) was third (40-9.75). Holly Forrester (junior, Manhattan, Kan., Rock Creek HS) was second in the women’s triple jump (35-2) and Yuan Bank (junior, Littleton, Colo., Heritage HS) was third (30-3.5)
“We’ve got to get used to jumping with wind and figuring that part out,” Sturman said.
In Thursday’s only running event, Central runners took the top spots for both genders. Will DeHaan (junior, DeWitt, Central DeWitt HS) was the men’s champion in 8:40.70 and Caroline McMartin (freshman, Pella) was the women’s champion in 10:43.17.
“Coach Dunham was pretty happy with everybody in the 3000,” Sturman said. “That’s only three seconds off of Caroline’s lifetime best. Will is running great. It doesn’t matter what event we put him in, he’s running phenomenal.”
Day two of competition gets underway at 10 a.m. with field events. The running events will start at noon.
