SJU JOHNNIES Track and Field Blog
I haven’t had much time for updates as hosting the MIAC Indoor Championship meet kept us busy. Thankfully I am lucky to work alongside some great coaches who really dedicated a lot of time in preparing for this meet. When they were combined with some of the best track officials in Minnesota, I thought we ran a pretty good championship meet.
We quickly went from the conference meet, to a couple of last chance meets, and now I have some time at the airport. We are on our way to Rochester, NY for the NCAA Indoor National Championship meet. We have five athletes competing this weekend.
Max Reis (FY, Spectrum): 60 meter dash: Friday at 1:00pm
Jackson McDowell (SR, Centennial CO): High Jump: Saturday at 11:00am
Zach Schaffer (SR, Chaska): Long Jump: Friday at 2:30pm
Anthony Thurk (SR, Waconia): Heptathlon: Friday & Saturday
Max Lelwica (SR, Brainerd): Heptathlon: Friday & Saturday
The team finished third at the MIAC Indoor Championships. It was a typical meet with highs and lows which set the scene for some drama with our heptathletes. The big highlight was an exciting 30 minutes to end the Friday session. Max Reis ran a big PR in the 60 of 6.78 seconds. He finished second in the race, tied Kevin Arthur’s school record, and qualified for nationals. At the same time, Jackson McDowell was finishing the high jump. He broke the school record for the victory and also qualified for nationals with his jump of 6-11. Shortly after, our distance medley team of Tommy Allen (SR Woodbury), Ryan Conzemius (SR LaCrosse, WI), Lars Molenkamp (SO Netherlands), and Cole Stencel (SO Mapleton) pulled off the upset win over good teams from St. Olaf, Macalester, and Bethel. It was an exciting and loud end to the evening.
That excitement salvaged a bittersweet start to the day. Our heptathletes had an amazing first day on Thursday. Not only did Anthony Thurk and Max Lelwica lead the competition, but they were also positioned well to qualify for nationals. Unfortunately, this was the heptathlon and disaster struck on day two with Max no-heighting in pole vault. This could have easily derailed both him and Anthony as they were distraught in the moment: best friends, close teammates, and inseparable. Instead, Anthony rallied for the big win and hit his qualifying mark for Nationals. Max was the consummate teammate by staying positive and supporting teammates in all their events. I could not be more proud of these guys.
Of course, Max bounced back the next week by breaking the 5,000 point barrier to solidify his spot at Nationals and join his teammate at Nationals. His score of 5,063 won the heptathlon at the Wartburg last chance meet. Not to be outdone for dramatics, Zach Schaffer left it to his final jump at the last chance meet in La Crosse to qualify for nationals. He did it in record breaking fashion with a jump 23-7.75 to break Erik Diley’s school record from 2009.
While this doesn’t include a national qualifier, we did break one more school record at the last chance meet. The Conference champion DMR anchor Cole Stencel drafted a new distance medley team of Nick St. Peter (JR Maple Grove), Wyatt Witschen (SO Monticello), and Owen Montreuil (JR Jordan). They ran 10:04.89 and finished ranked 17th in the country (top 12 relay teams qualify for nationals).
We haven’t had five athletes qualify for Nationals since 2020. We get started on Friday. Follow along here:
Thanks
Jeremy