ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul track and field team will continue to travel of variety of meets both local and out of state this week, as they will compete in five meets in the next seven days.
MEET INFO
The Golden Bears will kick off their week with the Women's Twilight on Wednesday, which will take place at the University of Minnesota. The men will then compete in the Bolstorff Twilight on Thursday, a meet that will be hosted by Macalester College. The field events for the Women's Twilight will begin at 1 p.m. with the track events starting at 4. The field events for the Bolstorff Twilight will begin at 4:00 p.m. with the track events kicking off at 5:45.
The Golden Bears will then compete in a pair of meets on Friday and Saturday. Part of the team will travel to the prestigious Drake Relays (taking place on Friday and Saturday) while others will compete in the Drake Alternative. The latter will be hosted by Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, Minnesota on Saturday.
The week will conclude with the NSIC Multi-Event Championships. That will be hosted by Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D. and take place on Sunday, April 28th and Monday, April 29th. Three or four Golden Bears are expected to compete in that meet.
LAST TIME ON RELAY WEEKEND
Last year, the Golden Bears competed in the Drake Relays, the Drake Alternative at Gustavus Adolphus, and UW-Whitewater Drake Alternative. Two school records fell on the weekend as the Golden Bears competed on three separate days.
Benjamin Allen broke the school record in the 1500 meter run, cruising to a time of 3:51.30 and a fourth place finish at the Drake Relays. Allen wasn't done there as he joined forces with Tyler Hudson, Vantwon Melton and Cory Warner to shatter the school record in the distance medley relay on Saturday as they also took fourth. The unit's time of 10:03.36 shaved over 30 seconds off of a 16-year old record of 10:41.00 set back in 2002.
Allen was not the only CSP men's athlete to register multiple top-five finishes on the weekend as Marcus Gustaveson took home second in the discus and fifth in the shot put. Gustaveson cleared 155'4" in the discus and 49'3.5" in the shot put at the Drake Alternative at Gustavus.
On the women's side, Hannah Gustafson grabbed a trio of results in the top-five as she took second in the shot put, fifth in the discus, and fifth in the hammer throw. She put up a distance of 41'7.25 in the shot put, 131'5" in the discus, and 145'6" in the hammer throw.
Kara Lindberg joined Gustafson as a top finisher as she took second in the 5000 meter run by finishing in 19:10.93. Her sister, Ruth Lindberg, also finished in the top-five in the event as she took fifth with a time of 20:21.02. Both the men and the women finished with eight top-five finishes on the weekend.
LAST TIME AT THE NSIC MULTI-EVENT CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Golden Bears had a a duo of top performers last year the the NSIC Multi-Event Championships, as Kalle Burney and Wakpor Ighovojah finished first and second in the heptathlon to dominate the meet. Burney put up a total of 5474 points to take first place and reach an NCAA automatic qualifying mark while Ighovojah took second with a score of 5022 points.
Burney broke the NSIC record for points in the meet, winning five of the seven events overall. Ighovojah added a win and school record in the 100m hurdles on her way to a personal best in heptathlon.
Josh Johanson added another school record as he hit an NCAA provisional qualifying mark with 6472 points. Johanson finished first in the 1500m and the high jump on his way to a fifth place finish overall.
Jakob Tordsen was the only non-senior to compete, finishing 15th overall. Tordsen did his best work in the shot put and discus, finishing third in both events.
