ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s and women’s track and field teams are set to kick off the indoor season Friday at the St. Olaf Triangular. The meet begins at 4 p.m. in the Tostrud Center and participants include St. Olaf and Bethel.
Gustavus Head Coach Dale Bahr, now in his seventh season leading the track and field teams, sat down Thursday afternoon to answer a few questions about the upcoming season. Here are his comments:
What can we expect from the Gustavus track and field teams as the indoor season starts tomorrow?
“We haven’t set any preseason team goals simply because our whole team isn’t here yet. We’ve got about 60 percent of our team here right now, so tomorrow it’s more about getting experience and see where we are. We definitely want to see our upperclassmen competing at a level where they were toward the middle and end of last year. They’ve got their lifting done in the offseason to stay in shape. For those first-years and sophomores, it’s all about getting more collegiate experience and find out where they’re at so we can build from there. There’s not a whole lot of pressure for the first two or three meets, but once we get past Carleton and into Saint John’s, then we need to starting looking at who is going to qualify for conference. At that point, we’ll have had enough testing and it will be time to prove some stuff.”
Who would you include as leaders on the women’s team?
“I think Marit Sonnesyn (Sr., Plymouth, Minn.) for distance is going to score some points. She had a great cross country season and we’d like to see her continue to follow that up with a good track season. Sarah Swanson (Sr., Fairbanks, Alaska) for throws, she made indoor nationals two years ago, and she’s looking stronger than ever. Mikaela Algren (Jr., New Prague, Minn.), hopefully she can stay injury free and build off what she accomplished her freshman year. Last year she just had some strange injuries that limited her. Kaitlin Bembenek (Sr., Prior Lake, Minn.) is a strong 400-meter specialist. We definitely need her to score some points. Megan Eckberg (Gaylord, Minn.), sophomore hurdler who had a very good freshman campaign; I’d like to see her continue to build off that. Kelsey Harms (Apple Valley, Minn.) in the pole vault; being a senior with her last go at it, hopefully she can do what it takes to succeed this season. And McKayla Stowell (Le Sueur, Minn.), a local girl, is definitely somebody to start scoring right away as a first year.”
Who would you include as leaders on the men’s team?
“We’ve got a big junior class. In that class, David Anderson (St. Michael, Minn.) is going to be a good long sprinter for us and help shore up that 4×400. Derek Huntley (Maplewood, Minn.) in the pole vault has been working hard and showing some good team attributes right now. That’s fun to see. Thomas Knobbe (Decorah, Iowa) in the distance is looking good. Sean O’Connell (St. Peter, Minn.), we’re just having him sprint this year and not doing any jumping to keep him healthy and make him better at what he does best, which is sprinting. Ed and Sam ReMine (Mantorville, Minn.); Ed being a hurdler and second in the outdoor conference last year in the 400 hurdles. Sam is a good long sprinter for us.
“Some seniors that are going to do some good stuff for us include Sam Fischer (Sauk Centre, Minn.), he has been just a heck of a leader, getting that throws crew in the weight room. Those returning throwers are head and shoulders above where they were last year. Sam is now squatting 595. He’s just a monster. Paul Nordquist (Edina, Minn.) being a distance guy is a great leader, and Marcus Speca (Minnetonka, Minn.) is a good mid distance guy, I think we’ve got some depth. Those older guys are definitely going to be able to show the younger guys what it’s all about and they’ll be good mentors.”
St. Olaf Triangular Tentative Schedule of Events
FIELD EVENTS
4:00 WEIGHT THROW (women, men to follow)
(SHOT PUT FOLLOWS WEIGHT THROW – women, men to follow)
LONG JUMP (women, men to follow)
(TRIPLE JUMP FOLLOWS LONG JUMP women, men to follow)
4:00 POLE VAULT (women, men to follow)
HIGH JUMP (men, women to follow)
TRACK EVENTS (all running events are women first, then men, except hurdle finals)
4:00 5000 M – women
4:25 60M HH TRIALS – women
4:35 60 M HH TRIALS – men
4:40 60 M DASH TRIALS – women
4:50 60 M DASH TRIALS – men
5:00 5000 METERS – men
5:20 800 METER RELAY (Three turn stagger) – women
5:30 800 METER RELAY (Three turn stagger) – men
5:35 MILE RUN – women
5:50 MILE RUN – men
6:00 60 M HH FINALS – men
6:05 60 M HH FINALS – women
6:10 400 METERS – women
6:20 400 METERS – men
6:30 600 METERS – women
6:40 600 METERS– men
6:50 60 M FINALS – women
6:55 60 M FINALS – men
7:00 800 METERS – women
7:10 800 METERS – men
7:20 1000 METERS – women
7:30 1000 METERS – men
7:40 200 METERS – women
7:55 200 METERS – men
8:10 3000 METERS – women
8:25 3000 METERS – men
8:40 4 X 400 M RELAY – women
8:50 4 X 400 M RELAY – men
Scoring: 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 in individual events and 9-7-6-5 for relays, no more than 2 scorers per team, and one scoring relay per team.