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Track and field battle the elements and come out on top

Date 4/5/2001 12:00 AM | Topic: Sports

During the past weekend the men's and women's track and field team traveled to Dubuque, Iowa, for the Loras-Luther dual.

Despite horrible weather conditions, which resulted in canceling the meet after only a few of the events the Norse were still able to bring home some wins, and for the men, an NCAA provisional qualifier and an automatic qualifier.

In the women's 1,500 meter run both Siri Thompson ('01) and Janarah Tekippe ('01) brought in top placing runs with consecutive times of 4:56.28 and 5:00.67. Katie Kramer ('03) placed first in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 19:23.28. During the high jump event Jenn Anderson ('03) finished first with a distance of 4.76 m.

"The people who actually competed did a great job," said women's head coach Betsy Emerson, "even though it was disappointing that the meet was canceled, and even more so that the weather started improving twenty minutes afterward. When we got back to Luther, the women had a really hard workout; their positive attitudes were amazing."

During the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase Nate Canton ('02) placed first with a final time of 10:06.90.

"It was during the steeplechase that the weather started getting really bad," said men's head coach Jeff Wettach. "I was really impressed with the men's performance, physical and mental."

John Pettlon ('03) provisionally qualified for the NCAA tournament during the shot put event. His final throw placed him in first with a distance of 15.34 m.

The big winner of the meet was Matt Connor ('02), with his first place finish in the Decathlon race. Bringing in a final score of 6,400 points, he automatically qualified for the NCAA tournament.

"He gave two days of good, strong performances," said coach Wettach. "Now two out of four division three NCAA decathlon qualifiers are from Luther. That's never happened before."

Next up for the men and women, the Norse Relays, scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 7.

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Jenny Rogers
Chips Staff Writer

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