Track and Field competes at NCAA Nationals

On the weekend of March 11 and 12 the MSU indoor track team traveled to Pittsburg, Kansas to participate in the NCAA Indoor Championships. It was a two day event and both the male and female teams participated in the proceedings.

The male side got things kicked off with junior Myles Hunter. Hunter ran in the 60-meter hurdles and recorded himself a time of 7.53 which took him home a national championship in the event. Not only did he break his own personal record, he also recorded the fastest time in all of times in the United States for this event.

Fellow teammate and junior Frank Veldman also secured the honor of taking home All-American honors. Veldman participated in the high jump and set his jump at 6’ 9” which was good enough to set him in a tie for eighth place.

Teammate and freshman Jeff DeCock also placed in the event. He set a jump of 6’ 7”, which sent him back to Mankato with a 14th place finish in the event.

Senior Kyran Stewart rounded out the boys that were able to secure places when he ran in the 200m. Stewart finished with a time 21:46 and ended up placing sixth in the event.
The team finished with an overall score of 13.25 points and placed 19th as a whole.
The women Mavericks had themselves quite a good weekend as well with two members of the team being able to head back home with All-American honors.

In the 60-meter hurdle event sophomore Altoniece Williams was the first to do so. Williams finished the event with a time of 8.42 which gave her a second place finish.

Junior Haley Krueger set a school record in the preliminaries of the 800-meter event when she finished with a time of 2:09:94. Once the event came she took seventh place after finishing with a time of 2:11:63.

In the triple jump event junior Ariel Thomas finished in 14th place after she made a jump of 39’1”.

As a whole the girls were able to finish with 14.50 points, which secured them an 18th place finish.

Next up for the track teams will be a meet in Pittsburg, Kansas to compete in the Wendy’s/PSU Invitational.