FROZEN STEEPLE PIT AND A NEW TRAIL RACE AT SJU
The first outdoor college meet of the year in Minnesota has historically been at St. John’s. Many of you will remember Tim hosting this meet in many different configurations of indoor/outdoor combinations. We have switched to only hosting the meet outdoors and have cancelled it about 50% of the time. Hence the meet name: The Optimistic Invite.
This year’s version had a chilly start with over an inch of ice covering the steeple pit. This led to the most important question of the day; Is a frozen steeple pit still legal? Thankfully, we cleared the thick ice and runners didn’t need an ice bath post-race. The breezy, cool morning didn’t deter many athletes as 13 teams participated. In fact, I had to turn several teams away throughout the week to keep the meet manageable.
The day warmed up nicely, and we had some good performances to start the outdoor season. In particular, the javelin throwers stole the show. Led by senior Mitchell Degen (Brainerd) and his new PR of 60.83 meters. We had two other throwers over 50 meters: Bailey Evans (SO, Breckenridge) and Holden Dvorak (FR, Spectrum).
The sprinters were led by junior Kieran Murnan (Holy Angels). His time of 10.79 was good for the win. Cooper Smith (junior, East Grand Forks) kicked off his season for the hurdlers with a PR in the 400 hurdles of 54.09 and anchored the 4x400 relay to a win with a time of 3:19.65.
This week’s meet was moved from Wednesday to Monday to accommodate potential weather. We only sent a few of the distance runners down to Hamline. The rest of the team trained through the week and will be competing at Mankato on April 11th.
JKG
BTW: We are hosting a trail race series at St. John’s called the Collegeville Ultra. Runners have their choice of 10 miles, 20 miles, or a 50k. I am in the process of mapping out a 10 mile route through the SJU trails. The race is May 3rd. Join us!