If I’m being honest, I was disappointed in our conference meet this year. We finished in a commanding second place, but I thought we would be closer to St. Thomas in their final MIAC Championship. On paper, it looked like it would be a close team score. However, St. Thomas had some big performances and we were a little flat. I hypothesized that the combination of our block schedule ending the first day of the meet, some guys taking a final that morning, and many guys receiving their second vaccine dose that week all contributed to an average meet.
I try not to write about the lackluster performances we sometimes have, but it is worth mentioning now based on their performances at the National Championships. The pole vaulters and the 4x100m relay team had high expectations for the MIAC meet. We had the top two vaulters in the conference and the top 4x100m team. After a no height and a surprise second place finish in the relay, I wasn’t sure what to expect at the National Championships. How would Drew Dockendorf (JR, Holdingford) bounce back after the conference meet? I thought the 4x100m team had underperformed all year, but will they put it together at Nationals? Could Shawn Schindler (JR, Maple Grove) stay hot and keep vaulting this well?
The guys were in a great mood at Nationals. It was fun to take eight athletes and three coaches down to North Carolina. The weather was hot, humid, and we nearly lost our pole vault poles before we even got started. Side note: if anyone wants to start a company to transport pole vault poles, you would be saving coaches many hours of consternation.
At Nationals, it didn’t take long to answer some of my performance questions. The 4x100m relay kicked things off with a season best by nearly .4 seconds and the second fastest time in school history. Jack Young (JR, Rocori) ran an outstanding leadoff leg and held his own against some of the top sprinters in the country. Kevin Arthur (SO, Champlin Park) has really found another gear in the last three weeks of the season and put us in a great spot for Brady Labine (JR, Detroit Lakes) and Ryan Miller (JR, Totino-Grace) to finish strong.
I don’t even know what to say about the vaulters. That was simultaneously the most nerve-racking and exciting event to watch. Both Shawn and Drew went to their third attempt at opening height (15-1). Were these guys going to no-height at the National meet? Thankfully, both cleared opening height or we were going to have two crabby vaulters and an inconsolable vault coach for the rest of the trip. Then, more excitement after a couple more misses at the second height (15-7), but eventually both cleared again. A bunch of the vaulters started to congratulate each other because after only two heights, they were already down to eight vaulters and were All-Americans. In the end, Shawn finished in fourth place and Drew in sixth place.
Maguire Peterson (SO, Hutchinson) tackled both the high jump and javelin. He was still recovering from his MIAC win in the decathlon and hadn’t been able to practice much in either event leading up to NCAA’s. He pulled off a four-way tie for eighth place in the high jump and immediately had to go to javelin. Next time we will ask for a better event schedule.
In the 100m dash, Kevin continued his streak of 10.6’s with a 10.64sec in prelims for tenth place. Not too bad for squeaking into the meet at the last chance meet! Ryan ran his fastest time of the season in prelims with a 10.50sec. After a rough start in finals, he finished strong for a third place finish with a time of 10.58sec.
The team finished in twelfth place with 19.25 points. Everyone went home as an All-American. It was a fun group to spend the week with, especially with Coaches Joe and John and our alternate Matt Gish (JR, Bemidji) who did a great job keeping tabs on everyone and being ready to go if he was needed. Thank you to everyone who was keeping tabs on results or watching the live stream. We were especially heartened to hear the livestream announcers share a request from Twitter asking to replay a prelim race for our guys that had been skipped- we have the best fans! Texts from alums and friends were rolling in all weekend, so we knew you were out there cheering for us. Overall, it was a great trip.
Now we are trying to finish up recruiting for the year at the Minnesota State Track Meet later this week and then on to summer.