NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s track and field team took fourth place out of eight teams at Carleton’s Meet of the Hearts on Saturday.
“We looked good overall with a few first place finishes and we have a bit of depth in areas,” Head Coach Dale Bahr said. “This gives us an idea of where we are at against similar competition.”
Sarah Swanson (Sr., Fairbanks, Alaska) once again was the highlight of the day for the Gusties as a two-time winner. The senior thrower won the weight throw at 14.55 meters (1st/MIAC), and the shot put with a toss of 12.42 meters. Abigail Schnabel (Fy., Hamburg, Minn.) also climbed to the top of the podium, taking gold in the 800-meter with a time of 2:23.71.
Other notable top-five finishers include:
Kara Helgeson (Sr., Ortonville, Minn.) – second in the shot put (11.06 m)
Lydia Hayes (So., Decorah, Iowa) – third in the 600-meter (1:41.96)
Lauren Shurson (Sr., Chanhassen, Minn.) – fourth in the 3000-meter (10:41.76)
Jalia Anderson (Fy., Plymouth, Minn.) – fourth in the pole vault (3.02 m)
Kelsey Harms (Sr., Apple Valley, Minn.) – fourth in the pole vault (3.02)
Mallory Butchko (Fy., Elko, Minn.) – fourth in the high jump (1.5 m)
Sadie Novak-Klug (So., Waseca, Minn.) – fifth in the one-mile (5:26.86)
Kaitlin Bembenek (Sr., Prior Lake, Minn.) – fifth in the 200-meter (27.36)
Mikaela Algren (Jr., Prior Lake, Minn.) – fifth in the 800-meter (2:27.32)
Bailey Van Den Heuval (Fy., Mondovi, Wis.) – fifth in the shot put (10.53 m)
“I was pleased with how they performed,” Bahr said. “It’s nice to keep rolling with the season. We are midway through the competition part of our season, but almost done with the whole indoor season since we only have two more regular meets before we get into the conference meet. The next two meets we are going to back some people down and not run them in quite so many events and see if we can sharpen up a bit for the conference meet.”
Gustavus returns to the track next Saturday at Saint John’s.