Mavs track teams secure first place

The Minnesota State Men’s track team competed in the NSIC Indoor Track Championships this week and took first place, outscoring their competition with a total team score of 201.5. The score was just enough to edge border rival Augustana University by 1.5 points.

The championships started off slow for the Mavericks, where Augustana and the others were able to take commanding leads in the heptathlon. However, the Mavericks never gave up.

Slowly throughout the meet, the team crawled their way back into second place behind Augustana with key finishes by Carson Dittel in the pole vault with a height of 4.87 meters, Nick Hudson in the weight throw with a best throw of 19.50 meters, and the 200m dash.

Notably, the Mavericks had six top 8 finishers in the 200m dash where they secured a valuable 26 points to come within reach of Augustana. Junior Cornelius Bright led the Maverick 200m runners, who all came within .3 seconds of each other. 

Inevitably, the NSIC championships came down to the final race, the 4×400 meter relay. The team consisting of sophomores Carter Nesvold and Max DePrenger, along with junior Drew Lewison and senior anchor Kornelius Klah, were able to finish the job with a time of 3:20.60 as they took first place to put the Mavericks ahead by 1.5 points.

MSU secured their 10th straight NSIC Championship with the victory, and 12th in the last 13 years.

The next two days became the women’s turn to compete, as they also took first place in the NSIC Championships. 

The Mavericks scored 178 team points, enough to beat out Augustana at second with 155, and U-Mary at 105.

The Mavericks were never out of reach of first place the entire meet, with key victories for the Mavs coming from several events. Sophomore Makayla Jackson helped the team gain 10 points as she took first place in the women’s long jump with a jump of 5.75 meters and helped even more as she placed top eight in the 60m dash and 200m dash with times of 7.54 and 24.90, respectively.

Sophomore Denisha Cartwright was also amazing for the Mavericks this past weekend, where she placed first in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.41 seconds, first in the 200m dash with a time of 24.47 seconds, which is a new NSIC record, and second in 60m dash by a thousandth of a second with a time of 7.516.

With the win, the Mavs captured their third title in the past six years.

Both teams will compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships March 12-13 in Birmingham, Alabama.