On a Valentine's Day evening, the Principia College track team took five men to Bloomington, Indiana to compete in the Indiana University Hoosier Hills indoor track meet. It was a select meet where we entered several more athletes, but not all were invited by IU. Indiana U bases selection off of competitive ability combined with how many heats they can manage in order to make an efficient meet. It was a quality meet with a combination of NCAA Division 1, 2, and 3 teams.
The first event was the 60 meter hurdles. Last week, junior Josh Aleman ran for his first time ever over the high hurdles in a 55 meter race. Although he clipped the first hurdle tonight, he fought through and finished in 9.24 seconds. This time equaled his converted time from last week so his technical PR now matches his real PR. Additionally, his time moved him into third place on the all-time list for Principia. He passed
Jonathan Ansumana who ran 9.31 seconds last year in his final season.
After the hurdles were cleared from the track, junior
Corey Carter took off in the 60 meter dash. It was a tough outing for Corey as he finished in 7.23 seconds. This did not qualify him for finals. Unfortunately, the 200 meter dash was not any kinder to Corey. His time of 22.77 was a little slower than the week before and well off what he was accustomed to running last year. There are still two and possibly three meets for Corey to try and qualify for nationals.
The 60 hurdles and dash were both run on the interior and flat part of the track. For the events on the oval, senior
Abe Ott competed first. Running for the first time ever on a banked track, and facing much tougher competition than last week, Abe went out strong. His last lap was a little off. Still, he finished with a new indoor PR of 2:01.44 seconds which was .55 seconds faster than last week.
Senior
Chris Puduski had some reasons to celebrate, although, he didn't quite throw the 35 pound weight as far as he did last week. Half of his throws landed in the sector, and on his first throw, he heaved the weight 14.12 meters (46' 4") which was within four inches of his school record. Furthermore, Chris made the finals and finished 9
th.
Junior
Wisdom Thomas was the other man to get to compete in two events. First up for Wisdom was the long jump. Unfortunately, his night started out roughly. He was allowed three jumps and he fouled all of them. Making it even tougher was knowing that he could have won with a jump just shy of a PR. He also got to compete in the triple jump. Unfortunately, that was perhaps even tougher emotionally. He had what looked like a PR jump but just barely crossed the foul line. This is what makes jumps different than runs. You can have the jump of your life and it might not count.
Next Up
On Friday February 21, we will travel to Illinois College for the Hilltop Classic.Â
Â
