Recruiting outstanding high school track athletes only to have them show up on campus and decide they don’t want to compete anymore. To balance out those heartbreaks, we sometimes are gifted a talented athlete who has no prior experience in track. We have several of those guys and they are coming from basketball, soccer, and baseball. This year, we have picked up a couple guys from the Johnnie baseball team. I briefly mentioned Jackson McDowell from Colorado during the indoor season. We picked up Jackson before the trade deadline and probably owe the baseball team a “player to be named later” and a jar of Saint John’s maple syrup. Hopefully the price doesn’t increase as he continues to improve each week. At our meet last weekend at Hamline, Jackson won a jump-off for first place in the high jump and cleared 2.0 meters (6-6.75) and is ranked 18th in the country.
A couple other guys inserted themselves in the early national rankings with good performances at the Hamline meet as well. Kevin Arthur (JR, Champlin Park) ran a new personal record in the 100 with a 10.38 which is good enough for third in the country. Jumper Zach Schaffer hit a big pr in the triple jump with a distance of 13.81and is ranked in the top 30 for both long and triple jumps. Both of those guys were joined by Aidan Morey (SO, Omaha) and Kieran Murnan (FY, Lakeville) on the 4x100. We had a last minute substitution for our lead-off leg and they combined for a 41.68 which is currently ranked 25th.
The distance guys started the outdoor season with strong performances in the 5k. Freshman Vincent Kaluza (Cold Spring) debuted in the race with one of the fastest freshmen times in a long time. He confidently ran 15:13 and he will be one to watch improve throughout the year.
erall, I am impressed with the start of the season. Some of the performances were very good despite the cool and windy day. This week, the team splits between two meets. I am taking five guys to California and the rest of the team is headed down at Mankato. In California, we will be competing in the Bryan Clay meet again. This may be one of the biggest meets ever. Over 800 men are competing in just the 1500! Hopefully we have some good performances to report next week.
Speaking of next week, we are back home for our only home outdoor meet of the year. We have made some schedule adjustments and will be hosting the first day of the women’s heptathlon and 10k’s on Friday night. The rest of the meet is Saturday. We’d love to have you return to cheer on the team or compete. Email me if you are interested in competing: jeremykg@csbsju.edu.
In the meantime, I’ll be scouring the baseball rosters for the next big trade. I’ll have to pull Tim out of retirement to work some Moneyball magic.
Jeremy