Gustavus junior Jered Hokenson (Watertown, Minn.) claimed titles in the high jump and pentathlon and juniors Tanner Miest (New London, Minn.) and Andy Klaers (Delano, Minn.) posted NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the 55-meter hurdles and weight throw, respectively, as the Gustavus men’s indoor track and field team recorded a fifth-place at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday evening at Carleton.
Hokenson opened the meet with a school-record effort in the heptathlon, accumulating 4384 points to break the mark of 3356 points set by Jason Meek in 1994. Hokenson won the high jump portion of the competition with a leap of 6-4 1/4 and failed to finish lower than fifth in any of the seven events. Hokenson added the high jump title later in the meet with a leap of 6-5 1/2. Freshman Chad Wilshusen (Fremont, Neb.) finished in a sixth-place tie in the high jump with a leap of 6-0 1/2. Senior Mike Schmidt (Rogers, Minn.) cleared the same height, but placed ninth due to more attempts.
Miest captured his qualifying heat in the 55-meter hurdles with a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 7.75 seconds and then lowered the mark in the final with a second-place time of 7.74 seconds. Freshman Tyler Geyen (Watertown, Minn.) also won his qualifying heat (7.99 seconds), but finished fourth in the final with a clocking of 8.10 seconds.
Klaers placed second in his preliminary flight of the weight throw with a toss of 55-0 1/4, but could not improve on the mark in the finals, placing third. Senior Nick Kroshus (Grand Rapids, Minn.) placed eighth in Klaers’ flight with a throw of 42-11, but did not advance to the final.
Sophomore Drew Hood (Mankato, Minn.) finished third in the pole vault, clearing a height of 14-10 1/4.
Senior Jack Henkemeyer (Plymouth, Minn.) scored a trio of top-six finishes, placing fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.21 seconds and sixth in both the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.67 seconds and the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.65 seconds. In the 55-meter dash, Henkemeyer won his qualifying heat with a time of 6.63 seconds.
Freshman John Retka (Shoreview, Minn.) qualified for the final in both the long jump and triple jump, finishing sixth in the long jump with a leap of 21-2 1/2 and fifth in the triple jump with a hop, skip and a jump of 43-5 1/4.
Senior Joe Atkinson (Lake Crystal, Minn.) and junior Luke Weyandt (Ham Lake, Minn.) moved into the final of the shot put with throws of 46-7 1/2 and 46-2 1/2, respectively, but were unable to improve on those marks to place sixth and eighth.
Freshman Ryan Brownell (fifth, 800-meter run), sophomore Ben Treichel (seventh, 400-meter dash) and junior Chris Ward (tenth, 1000-meter run) also scored top-ten individual finishes for the Gusties.
The team of Treichel (So., Webster, Wis.), Matt Wittman (Sr., Willmar, Minn.), Miest and Chad Arlt (Fr., St. Michael, Minn.) finished third in the 800-meter relay with a time of 1:32.81, while Treichel, Miest, Wittman and Geyen added a fifth-place finish in the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:26.47. The distance medley relay team of Mark Hall (Sr., Windom, Minn.), Wittman, Brownell (Fr., Hibbing, Minn.) and John Leaf (Fr., Center City, Minn.) placed seventh with a time of 11:01.21.
With their top-three individual finishes at the MIAC meet, Hokenson (twice), Miest, Klaers and Hood claimed All-Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors.
Miest is tied for 16th in the 55-meter hurdles and Klaers is 24th in the weight throw on the 2005-06 Ranked Performance List as of March 5. Selections for the 2006 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships will be announced Monday, March 6. This year’s national meet will be held at the Tostrud Recreational Center on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota on March 10-11, 2006.