For the first time in MIAC history, a team other than St. Thomas will win the MIAC Indoor Championship. Initially, I did not like the idea of St. Thomas leaving the conference as I thought it would reduce the competitiveness of our championship meets. Instead, their absence has added an excitement to the meet. Rather than teams competing for second and third place, several schools have the ability to win the team title. The depth in some events has suffered, yet nearly every event has nationally ranked athletes.
The MIAC Championships gets underway at 2:20pm on Thursday with the heptathlon. The top three entrants are nationally ranked 8th, 9th, and 12th. I included links below for the livestream and live results. Be sure to follow Maguire Petersen (Jr, Hutchinson) who is ranked 1st in conference, 8th Nationally, and the other Johnnies heptathlon athletes tomorrow.
It is hard to pick out a couple marquee events for the conference meet. We have athletes able to score in every event. Here are several events with Johnnies ranked high nationally:
● 60 meter dash: Kevin Arthur (SO, Champlin Park) and Ryan Miller (SR, Totino-Grace)
● Mile: Lloyd Young (SO, Bloomington) and Mitchell Grand (S), Hutchinson)
● Triple Jump: Michael Wallace (JR, Nassau, Bahamas) and Elijah Wade (SO, Waco, TX)
● Weight Throw: Eli Mollet (JR, Jefferson, SD) and Gavin Rupp (JR, Minnewaska)
New: Squad National Rankings. The coaches’ governing body started ranking teams by event. They take a school’s top four athletes in every event and rank them against all Division 3 schools. You need to have four athletes in each event in order to qualify, so some events won’t have Johnnie representation. Some of the SJU coaches are contending to see whose event group can get the best overall ranking. The competition is heating up as we near the end of the season. The top events so far are the weight throw (5th), pole vault (8th), and triple jump (9th). I’m predicting big changes this weekend! Stay tuned.
Hope you take time out of your workday to follow along.
Jeremy
Links for the weekend:
MIAC Indoor Championship Livestream