Matt Flotterud placed second in the 110-meter hurdles.
St. Paul – The Gustavus men’s track and field team finished seventh in a field of 11 teams at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championships hosted by St. Thomas on Saturday afternoon. The Gusties scored a total of 72.5 team points. Winning the meet was the University of St. Thomas with 186 team points.
Leading the Gustavus men’s track and field team was senior Ryan Ness (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.). Ness won the gold medal in the javelin after posting a toss of 182-feet 10-inches. With his performance, Ness becomes just the second Gustie in school history to win the javelin at the MIAC Championships. It had been 87 years since last a Gustavus athlete won the event, as Earl Ecklund recorded a winning javelin throw of 141-feet nine-inches back in May of 1926.
Also bringing in All-Conference honors was Matt Flotterud (Jr., Cannon Falls, Minn.). Flotterud crossed the finish line in 15:42 to place runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles.
Other top Gustavus finishers on Saturday included Phillip Butler (Jr., St. Paul, Minn.) and Scott Williams (So., Maple Grove, Minn.). Butler placed sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11:15, while Williams took seventh in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 59.25.
The top three individuals in each event and the first-place relay team automatically earned All-Conference honors, and the fourth- through sixth-place finishers in each open event and second- through sixth-place relay teams will all be named All-Conference Honorable Mention. Top individual honors will be announced later this week.