Thank you to all the previous athletes who attended our annual Alumni Meet on Saturday. It was a great turnout and we were thrilled to have so many people back on campus. The alumni team was well represented with someone competing in every event and those performances didn’t disappoint. Drew Schoenbauer (‘19) proved he’s still got it with a solid second place finish in the 60 meter dash. Steve Dalhed (‘05) executed a textbook “wait-and-blow-the-doors-off” pass of Dan Murphy (‘05) in an epic 400 meter alumni race. In that same heat Jim Schoffman (‘75) ran the fourth fastest time in the world this year for his age group. The alumni performances concluded with a big upset in the triple jump as the school record holder, Eric Buss (‘09), was defeated by Paul Ferber (‘05).
The younger guys also fared well at the meet. We had three athletes break into the SJU All-Time Top-10 lists. Sophomore Eli Mollet is now sixth in school history with a big improvement in the weight throw at 15.87 meters. Freshman Maguire Petersen also ranks sixth in his event, high jump, with a jump of 2.00 meters (6-6.75). The big performance of the day, however, came from junior Drew Dockendorf who broke the school record and personal best in the pole vault. He cleared 4.88 meters (16-0 feet). The previous school record of 15-9 was set in 2009 by Brayden Wagner (‘09).
Video of Drew's Record Breaking Vault
While at the Alumni Meet, I spoke with Mike Bauer (‘76) about our All-Time ranked triple jumpers. Sandwiched between #1 Eric Buss and #3 Paul Ferber is one of Mike’s teammates, Rudy Sawyer (‘74). Rudy was All-American in 1974 with a jump of 48’9”. Rudy lives in his homeland of the Bahamas and owns an ecological tour company which was devastated by Hurricane Dorian. Mike and fellow Johnnie, Dave Lyndgaard set up a GoFundMe page to help him rebuild his business.
This week, we are headed to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. After a good showing last Saturday, the distance runners will train through this meet, so we will be traveling with a smaller group to River Falls. The flu has also started to go around and we have several other guys out this week (wash your hands, everyone!). Hopefully it means we will be done with the flu and healthy at the end of the season. Stop by River Falls if you happen to be in the area on Saturday. Field events start at 11am and track events begin at noon.
Thanks again for the wonderful support last weekend. Besides the group that participated in the events, we were also joined by many alums in the stands and at Brother Willie’s pub afterwards. We also had the biggest field ever for the kiddie race. I’m already looking forward to next year’s Alumni rematches. For those of you that decided not to compete, you’ve got 51 weeks to prepare- 2021 is gonna be your year for a comeback!