Fourth place. I was optimistic we had a chance for second place at the MIAC Indoor Championships if events broke our way. Third or fourth was a realistic expectation and fifth if the meet went poorly. Regardless, the field was tight for second place. SJU was finishing up mid-terms and just about to start our spring break which is not ideal (most years the conference meet falls a week earlier in our academic calendar). Despite St. Thomas’ big lead, they underperformed in some events and scored about 25 points less than predicted. Unfortunately, those points helped other teams more than us.
I would normally say I’m disappointed with the fourth place team finish, but we had too many outstanding performances to think negatively about the meet. In total, we had three conference champions, two school records, and one conference meet record. The gem performance of the meet was Drew Dockendorf’s (JR, Holdingford) pole vault. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIbuBuBsqQU) He joined the 5.00 meter club (16ft-4.75in) for first place and broke the conference record set in 2007. He received a celebratory tackle in the pit by his teammates that put a smile on anyone’s face that got a chance to witness it and yet, no one seems to have caught the rejoicing on film! Ryan Miller (JR, Totino-Grace) defended his conference title in the 60 meter dash and reset his school record with a time of 6.90 seconds. And while we expected to win the triple jump, we had a surprise conference champion. Michael Wallace (SO, Bahamas) upset his teammate Collin Trout (SR, Cloquet) as they jumped 14.39 meters (47ft-2.5in) and 14.30 meters (46ft-11in) respectively.
The distance runners were led by Mitchell Grand (FR, Hutchinson) and Tre Collins (SR, Royalton). Mitchell battled four opposing seniors in the mile who are all ranked nationally in the top-20. He ran an outstanding mile of 4:19.66 for fifth place. Tre Collins had a solid 8th place finish in the 5k; these days 15:22.22 only gets 8th place.
Our place overall was also impacted by the absence of a few key athletes. Two of our 400 meter runners were out with injury or illness: Brady Labine (JR, Detroit Lakes) and Omavi Collison (SO, Bahamas). A third 400 meter runner, Jackson Devereaux (JR, Lakeville South), returned from injury just in time to run a leg of the 4x400m relay. He looked fantastic for his first 400m of the year and should have a dynamite outdoor season. Historically, the Johnnies build steam over the winter and really come into their prime in April and May, so I’m looking forward to what we can do for the outdoor season.
Wait a minute, we aren’t even done with the indoor season! We have three guys who have safely qualified for the National Championships and a couple more who will try Saturday at a last chance meet at Wartburg. So far, Drew is tied for 2nd in the country in vault, Ryan is 13th in the 60m, and Maguire Petersen (FR, Hutchinson) is tied for 5th in the high jump. Our triple jumpers, Michael and Collin are sitting 17th and 19th and will need to compete this weekend. Eli Mollet (SO, Jefferson, SD) fouled a huge throw in the weight throw last weekend and will give it one more attempt in Iowa. It would be stupendous to take 5 or 6 individual event participants to the National meet; we’ll see what we can accomplish this Saturday.
Thank you to all the folks that assisted while we hosted the conference meet last weekend. It was a packed house, and we had a great staff of Johnnie alums and friends that pulled off a great event.
The National Championships are March 13-14th in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I’ll keep you all updated with meet info and livestreams next week.