The Red Raider track and field team established five school records and three athletes turned in national qualifying performances this past weekend at the Bill Hillenbrand Open in Vermillion, S.D. Both the men's and women's teams were making their season debut and will next compete as a split squad at the ISU Open in Ames, Iowa and the BV Open in Storm Lake.
Three women's athletes, Laura Jacobson (Galva, Iowa), Olivia Johnson (Milford, Iowa) and Charity Miles (Thedford, Neb.), met qualifying standards for the NAIA national indoor meet held in Johnson City, Tenn. on March 6-8. Jacobson placed second in the 800m run with a time of 2:19.9 and boasts the sixth best qualifying time to date. Johnson won the one mile run and set a new school record with a time of 5:06.6. She is seeded fourth as of today for the national indoor meet. Miles placed second in the 3000m run and set a new school record with a time of 10:29.1. Miles has the second best time in the NAIA to date.
Angela Wiersma (Chadwick, Ill.), Rae Taylor (Platte City, Mo.) and Halee Wilken (Bloomfield, Neb.) established new NWC indoor records in their respective events. Wiersma placed 11th in the triple jump and recorded a record-setting leap of 31-09.5. Taylor placed 13th in the weight throw with a toss of 41-04.5. Wilken tied for sixth in the pole vault as she cleared 9-06.
Other top performances for the women's team include Stephanie Powell, a freshman from Columbus, Neb., who captured first place in the 1000m run with a time of 3:13.03. Lori Wolf placed fifth in the same event with a time of 3:18.55. Sara Hess placed sixth in the 3000m with a time of 11:04 while Emily DeWeerd finished seventh in the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.83.
Dan Walhof (Edgerton, Minn.) led the men's team with a pair of top 10 finishes. The junior placed third in the one mile run with a time of 4:31.13 and finished eighth in the 3000m run with a time of 9:14.19. Ben Brown and Kevin Krueger placed ninth and 11th, respectively, in the 800m run with times of 2:04.06 and 2:04.73. Logan Ogden turned in a top 10 finish in the shot put with a toss of 45-10, good for seventh place.
