The south end of campus was overtaken today for the first day of the 2018 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The men dominated the day — as expected — and led the team scoring 101 points after six events at the end of the first day, putting them 55 points ahead of Augustana College, currently in second place.
Standouts from the day include Caleb Lundquist, ’18, in the javelin throw, Dan O’Keefe, ’18, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the men’s distance team that dominated the 10,000-meter run finals. Lundquist broke the school record on his third and final attempt with a throw of 61.28 meters (201-0 feet). He also placed first in the event, scoring 10 points for the men’s team. Teammate Liam Doran, ’21, also joined Lundquist in javelin honors by placing sixth and adding three points to the board.
Caleb Lundquist, ’18, won the javelin throw with a new school record of 61.28 meters. | Courtesy photo
Elsewhere in the field events, Vince Olenjniczak, ’19, placed fifth in the hammer throw. Pole vaulters Dylan Kuipers, ’18, and Luke Winder, ’18, went 1-2 in the event, respectively.
On the track, the day saw mostly preliminary heats in preparation for Saturday”s finals-filled day. The men qualified Kyle Hilton, ’19, Nick Stuttle, ’20, and Erik Musgrave, ’20, in the 110-meter hurdles and Maceo Findlay, ’20, in the 100-meter dash. Findlay also qualified for the 200-meter dash finals along with teammates Michael Stanley, ’21, and Daniel Spaccapaniccia, ’18. Stanley and Spaccapaniccia are joined in the 400-meter finals by Ben Nordman, ’18.
In mid-distance events, Peyton Piron, ’19, Gavin Cernek, ’20, and Hilton all qualified for Saturday’s 400-meter hurdles final. All five men in the 800-meter run preliminaries — Chris Suda, ’20, Brendon Sebastian, ’21, James McQuality, ’18, Chris Buechner, ’19, and Jonah Penningroth, ’20 — qualified for Saturday as well.
Dan O’Keefe, ’18, started off running finals on a high note by winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:11.28. He was joined on the podium by Ian Irvine, ’20, Zack Michael, ’20, and David Santana, ’18. The group tacked on another 21 points to the team score.
Unsurprisingly, the men’s distance team went 1-2-3-4-5 in the 10,000-meter run, scoring 33 points for the team to cap off day one. Nolan McKenna, ’19, won the event in 30:58.40 with Steven Sismelich, ’18, following 10 seconds behind. Dominic Dina, ’20, ran to third in 31.44.48 and teammates Argeni Bailon, ’18, and Jacob Jaskowiak, ’19, finished out the scoring in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Dylan Kuipers, ’18, and Luke Winder, ’18, added to the team score with a 1-2 finish in the pole vault. | Photo by Noah Cordoba
On the women’s side, the North Central Cardinals are sitting fourth after day one and a strong showing from the women in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The distance team added 15 points to the team score in the second-to-last event of the night by going 3-4-5 in the steeplechase. Madelyn Scopp, ’19, led teammates Dianne Barajas, ’19, and Alexis Henz, ’21, to sub-12-minute times in the race.
The ladies stayed strong throughout the preliminaries, qualifying women for day two in every event. Milia Harris, ’20, was the lone qualifier in the 100-meter hurdles and Anna Baltudis, ’21, was North Central’s only qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles. Mayson Whipple, ’18, was the final single qualifier in the 100-meter dash. Whipple also qualified for the 200-meter dash finals with teammate Kelsey McLaurin, ’21.
Three women made it past the first round to qualify for 400-meter finals: Elizabeth McCadd, ’21, Bethany Bachmann, ’18, and Kaitlin Bonney, ’21. Three more from the mid-distance crew, led by Allison Hartman, ’18, qualified for 800-meter finals. Hartman will be joined by Barajas and Henz in tomorrow’s race.
Splitting their day between both the track and the field, Hailey Dammier, ’19, and Erin Donnelly, ’21, are sitting fifth and seventh, respectively, after completing four of the seven events in the heptathlon. The remaining three — long jump, javelin throw and the 800-meter dash — will be completed during tomorrow’s finals.
Over on the field, Naomi Yamane, ’19, placed fourth in the hammer throw and Daniele Stubner, ’21, earned third in the javelin throw. Jolie Etherton, ’21, and Zoe Steppe, ’21, made a strong showing in the pole vault by placing fifth and seventh, respectively. Altogether, these ladies added 17 points to the women’s team score.
Action starts again tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. with the men’s decathlon racing the 110-meter hurdles. Live results can be found on FloTrack or you can keep track of North Central’s athletes on the Chronicle’s Twitter account.
