After the opening day of competition at the 2012 MIAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, the Gustavus Adolphus men’s team sits in fourth place with 49 points. St. Thomas is the current leader with 119 points, while Hamline is in second at 63, and Bethel rounds out the top-three in third with 53. Every Gustavus athlete with a top-five finish on the day recorded their season-best performance in their respective event. The 2012 MIAC Championships are being held in the Leonard Center on the campus of Macalester College in St. Paul.
Sophomore Blair Riegel (Lakeville, Minn.) was Gustavus’ top performer with a pair of finishes on the podium in day one. Riegel ran a season-best 6.99 to finish third in the 60-meter dash and turned in a season-best leap of 22’ 6.5” to finish second in the long jump. Eyo Ekpo of St. Thomas edged Riegel in the long jump with a mark of 22’ 8”.
Riegel’s teammate, senior Matt Dvorak (Burnsville, Minn.) came in second in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.92, which is also a season-best for him. Cody Jerabek of St. Thomas won the race with a time of 6.86.
Also in the sprints, senior Steve Groskreutz (Faribault, Minn.) came in fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with his top time of the year at 8.558. Sophomore Eric Jorgenson (Maple Grove, Minn.) provided a fourth place mark in the 800-meter run as well, crossing the finish line in a season-best 1:55.21. Senior Mark Bartley (Blue Earth, Minn.) rounded out the top individual performers on the track with a fifth place finish in the 5000-meter run with a season-low time of 15:30.17. Bartley was ranked 13th in the event with a time of 15:45.02 entering the meet.
Rounding out the performances of the day was the distance medley relay team’s fourth place finish. Sophomore Tanner Davenport (Ham Lake, Minn.), senior David Johnson (Libertyville, Ill.), Eric Jorgenson, and senior Anders Bowman (Plymouth, Minn.) teamed up to go 10:35.84 in the race.
Matt Dvorak
Blair Riegel
The 2012 MIAC Indoor track and field Championships began with the heptathlon competition on Thursday, March 1st and sophomore Cameron Clause (Mankato, Minn.) was on top of his game. Clause scored 4,564 points to finish third, becoming the first Gustavus athlete to earn All-Conference honors in the heptathlon since Drew Hood did so in 2008. Clause’s top marks came in the pole vault and 1,000-meter run. Clause cleared 15’ 2.75” in the pole vault and ran a 2:45.52 in the 1,000. The sophomore also placed third in the long jump with a leap of 20’ 5” and fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.20. He rounded out the heptathlon by taking eighth in the 60-meter dash (7.47), 10th in the high jump (5’ 6.5”), and 15th in the shot put (25’ 6”).
Throughout the entire championship meet, the top three finishers in each individual event and each winning relay team earn automatic MIAC All-Conference honors. All-Conference Honorable Mention is awarded to places 4-6 in each individual event, and 2-6 in the relays.
The third and final day of the event will take place Saturday, with field events starting at 11:30 a.m. and track events starting at 2 p.m. Saturday’s final event begins at 5:15 p.m., and there will be a short awards ceremony following the conclusion of the meet to honor the team champions.