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By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
Last weekend, the FHSU Indoor Track and Field team competed in the Rumble in the Jungle Invitational meet at Pittsburg. The team competed well, and the men earned the No. 24 ranking in the men’s team’s USTFCCCA NCAA Division II National Rating Index. This is the first ranking poll for the season, and the men are also No. 5 in the Central Region and No. 4 in the MIAA.
Sprints Coach Kelly Meyer was pleased with the way the team performed over the weekend during the first overnight meet for the season.
“We’re in a good place. There’s quite a bit of room for us to develop, capacity-wise, but
solid performances from pretty much everyone,” she said. “ [I] definitely think there is a good bonding aspect when we can spend more time together on the bus and go talk. There are the disadvantages of late nights of traveling and time away from school and your own bed, but ultimately, I think the pros outweigh the cons.”
The top performers for the team were Jacob Clark and Emily Diercks. Clark won the pole vault competition, and he is still undefeated this season. He vaulted over 5.08 meters and earned his third consecutive MIAA Field Athlete of the Week Award with a season-best of 5.27.
“[I am] happy with the performance, but some things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to,” he said.
On the women’s side, Diercks ran a school record in the 3,000-meter race and won the event with a time of 9:52.99, also hitting the national qualifying mark. This is a good start for Diercks indoor season after a successful cross-country campaign during the fall.
Meyer highlighted some other performers as well.
“I was very pleased with the men’s 4×400, given the condition of some of our people and the events that they had run prior to that; it was a really good race. I was also pleased with our sprints,” she said. “I thought they did well overall, especially Mayan (Paz) in the 600 yards (1:15.40), Hayden (Albright) in the 200 and the 400 (21.47, 48.49), and then the 4×400. Avery (Albright) had a really great 60 (6.91) and some really good pole vault performances as well.”
The 4×400 team almost scratched the race after two of the original squad sprinters were unable to race, and the alternate runner suffered a slight injury from prior races. However, the team was able to assemble a four-person squad and finished with a time of 3:16.81, narrowly missing the national qualifying mark, winning their heat and finishing in 4th place overall. The group was composed of Avery Albright, Hayden Albright, Drew Tolar, and Paz.
Annabeth Balman performed well in the pole vault, as she cleared 3.77 meters, and Reba Mader ran the 400-meter dash with a time of 57.56 seconds. Christian Darrah won in the mile with a time of 4:11.89.
This weekend, the Tigers will compete at two different locations, one Friday and Saturday at Washburn University in Topeka and the other on Friday at Nebraska-Kearney.