MONMOUTH, Ill. – Monmouth’s Midwest Invitational indoor track home opener Saturday not only ushered in another winter storm, but more national top 10 performances.
The Fighting Scots’ women’s distance medley relay turned in a notable performance with four freshmen. Arika Hofmann, Mik Moore-Kaczmarek, Kara Fisher and Ezzie Baltierra-Chavez placed third at the meet, but clocked the seventh-fastest time in the nation with a 13:23.84. Baltierra-Chavez and Hofmann also placed 2-3 in the 600-meter run with times of 1:49.39 and 1:49.78, respectively.
Men’s throwers John Hintz and Joe Krall joined the relay team with national top 10 efforts. The pair each threw personal-bests in the weight throw where Hintz turned in a winning throw of 61’2-1/4” to place sixth nationally. Krall was second in the meet and eighth in the nation with a mark of 60’8-1/2”. Krall also took second in the shot put at 45’1-1/2” while Drew Thaxton placed third with a heave of 44’11-3/4”.
Monmouth turned in two other national top 25 performances, one in the men’s field events and another with a women’s relay.
Seth Anderson was the meet runner up in the high jump where he cleared 6’6-1/4”, the same height as the winner, but placed second on the number of attempts to clear the height. The mark ranks him 17th nationally. The women’s 4×400 relay of Jordan Peckham, Payton Peckham, Vanessa Caldwell and Cynthia Myers won their race with a 4:07.45 to rank 25th nationally.
Two personal-bests were recorded in the 60-meter dash.
Stone Darrow took the runner up spot in the men’s race with a PR of 7.11, just 15-hundredths out of first. Running in the women’s 60 dash, Jordan Peckham clocked her lifetime-best in the prelims with a 7.98. She took third in the finals, running a Monmouth honor roll time of 8.01.
Monmouth’s women claimed three other wins on Saturday. Caroline Young broke the tape in the 3K with an 11:22.85, four seconds ahead of Julia Sterr in second place. Alex Neve raced to the win in the 60 hurdles with a 10.51, 26-hundredths in front of the runner up. The Peckham sisters, Myers and Kenzie Baker clocked the fastest time in the 4×200 relay, posting a 1:47.27.
The Scots’ men also took the top spot in their 4×200 when Darrow, Darius Williams, Lucas Sondgeroth and Zach Vancil clocked a 1:32.44. Darrow, Sondgeroth and Vancil were joined by Alex Cutright to place second in the meet-ending 4×400 relay with a 3:34.48. Vancil and Cutright also placed 1-2 in the 400 with times of 52.79 and 52.80, respectively.
Tate Heiple and Riley Dulin turned in a pair of runner up finishes in the middle and distance events. Heiple placed second in the 600 with 1:27.20, just eight-hundredths off the pace. Dulin clocked a 9:24.10 to take the runner up spot in the 3K.
Monmouth will travel to UW-Whitewater this weekend for a Friday-Saturday competition.
