Bearcats wrap up busy weekend
With four meets on the docket and athletes in three states over the weekend, the Bearcats were busy and broke a pair of school records in the process.
Junior Chloe Wichmann broke her own school record in the heptathlon Thursday at the California Invitational, hosted by Azusa Pacific.
Wichmann finished seventh out of 53 competitors, scoring 5,235 points and improving her automatic NCAA qualifying mark by 33 points.
Senior Hannah Churchman also reached the provisional mark, collecting 4,665 points.
On the men’s side, junior Derrick Schluter placed sixth in the decathlon, scoring 6,533 points to reach the provisional mark. Senior Logann Halloran also surpassed the provisional threshold, scoring 6,419 points to take seventh.
A pair of distance runners — juniors Drew Keefer and Nolan Zimmer — also competed in the 88-year-old Kansas Relays in Lawrence, Kansas on Thursday, placing 10th and 17th, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run.
A portion of the team also competed Friday at the Mule Relays in Warrensburg Friday, winning three events.
The men’s 4×100-meter relay team of freshman Ervin Leonard, sophomore Cale Korbelik, freshman Matt Prindle and freshman Meliek Meyer picked up a win, missing the provisional mark by less than a second.
Sophomore Selina Kendall won the high jump and sophomore Alex Hartwig won the 800-meter run on the women’s side.
Freshman Jacob Beckemeyer took second in the javelin, Korbelik placed second in the 200-meter dash and sophomore Bryce Sheard came in third in both the triple and high jumps.
Junior D’Andre Thomas finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles and freshman Dallas Steiner took third overall in the 400-meter dash after winning his heat.
On the women’s side, junior Blake Reser and sophomore Olivia Morris finished second and third, respectively, in the triple jump while freshman Morgan McCormick took second in the 400-meter hurdles.
Northwest wrapped up its weekend at the Beach Track and Field Invitational Saturday, hosted by Long Beach State University at Cerritos College’s Falcon Stadium in Norwalk, California.
The Bearcats posted five provisional marks and sophomore Haley Manning broke her own school record in the 800-meter run at a meet featuring more than 3,000 entries from more than 100 schools.
Manning beat out 97 other runners to hit the provisional mark in the 800 and teamed with junior Gretchen Kroese, Wichmann and senior Alexis Boyd to hit the provisional mark in the 4×400-meter relay.
Freshman Nicole Hopkins also exceeded the provisional mark in the javelin.
On the men’s side, sophomore Wick Cinningham improved his provisional time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, taking sixth place. Junior Eli Smith also provisionally qualified Saturday, finishing ninth in a field of 96 in the 400-meter dash.
The team will split up again next weekend for their final preparations before the MIAA Championships in two weeks. A portion of the team will head to Des Moines, Iowa for the Drake Relays while the remaining athletes will compete in the Kip Janvrin Open, which is hosted by Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa.
