Men’s track & field wins NSIC Indoor Championship

Bobbi Patrick
Staff Writer

The men’s track and field team won their 8th consecutive NSIC Indoor Championship over the weekend, scoring points in every track and field event at Myers Field House.

Teams traveled to Mankato to compete both Friday and Saturday. Most events had prelims on Friday and finals on Saturday. 

Finishing up the heptathlon on Saturday, senior Jack Curtis won the event with 5201 points while senior Ryan Kruse finished in third with 5053 points. With his new personal best from this weekend, he is currently ranked seventh in the nation.

In the 60-meter dash, five Mavericks scored. Freshman sprinter Cornelius Bright finished second (6.88), with seniors Vance Barnes finishing fourth (6.93), Artavius Nixon finishing fifth (6.99), and Jaquez Wilson finishing seventh (7.03).

In the 60-meter hurdles, senior Sydne Davis (8.00) finished second. Davis is currently ranked eighth nationally, while his teammate senior Logan Bristol had a personal record and finished fourth with a 8.09.

In the 200-meter dash, junior Paul Selman finished second with a 21.87, and senior Reid Diamond finished third with a 21.89.

In the 400-meter dash, the mavericks sweeped the event with senior sprinter John Schuster winning the event (47.86), sophomore Josh Phelps finishing second (48.48), and Diamond finishing third (48.84). Schuster automatically qualified in the 400-meter dash with his time at conference, while Phelps is 17th in the nation.

In the distance events, the Mavericks scored over 40 points to contribute to the overall team win.

In the 1000-meter run, sophomore Jacob Wahlers won the event (2:26.61) and also broke the NSIC Championship record. His teammates sophomore Aaron Mayfield finished fourth (2:29.34) and freshman Ben Schmied finished eighth (2:34.23) to also stand up on the podium.

In the mile and the 3000-meter run, distance runner Austin Pasch finished second in both events. Both races were close, pushing Pasch to a new personal record in the 3000-meter run.

In the throws, senior Jayme LaPlante won the shot put with a throw of 16.53 meters. 

Senior jumper Elijah Calderon-PItchford won the triple jump with a 14.92-meter jump. Calderon-Pitchford is currently ranked eighth in the nation from his jump of 15.23 meters at the Chuck Petersen open in December 2018.

The men’s 4×400 meter relay team is currently ranked eighth in the nation with a time of 3:12.22. The same team of Diamond, Schuster, Phelps and Wilson won the 4×400 meter relay NSIC conference title this past weekend.

Also qualifying for nationals is the distance medley relay team, which is ranked 12th in the nation currently.

Up next, the athletes currently qualified for nationals will be making the trip to Pittsburg, Kansas March 8-9 for the NCAA National Championship meet held at Pittsburg State University.

Feature photo courtesy of Maverick Athletics.