MIAC Track Talk

I’m old enough to remember an ancient time when Ole throwers went 1-2 Indoor and 2-4-6 Outdoor in the Shot Put all the way back in 2023. They weren’t at the same level as Trent or Cooper, but that’s still good. Way back in 2023.

They host a lot and either no coach said anything or the Ole staff decided it was as advantage for them. I’d like to think it was the first rather than the latter. That throws cage is old. It should slow down over time. Shot Put needs some work, but so does their whole facility. And so do many more in our conference. Contacting the AD to share concerns will help the Ole coaching staff. I’m sure the admin doesn’t want to pay to do anything else for the track after an expensive conference meet. Hearing about safety concerns from others on their staff will help the coaches fight for improvements.

Lots of PB’s from the Multis at Olaf today except the Cobber women. Garrick, as an alum and MIAC Coach already had a meeting scheduled with the Ole AD’s. He was already very upset Cooper was put in a position to get hurt.

Looks like the Johnnies are going all in at La Crosse! Probably the right call, but sucks for the guys that didn’t get into the fast heat because they double entered at Auggie.

She may not have a gold medal, former 400 All-American Coach Pattie B sure knows how to peak her 400 runners. The battle for for the MIAC record will be the race to watch at Nationals as they narrowly took it away from Bethel last night. I’m so incredibly impressed by how she runs her program, hosts meets, and builds so much goodwill ok the sport in a way Power never could. Hopefully Waters has involved in mentoring the new staff.

Probably final report for the conference. Someone else can take the task next year, but I’ve enjoyed bribing some unbiased reporting to the conference this year.

Several MIACers took advantage of the Last Chance meets in a big way, none more than the Cobbers.

Shot Putter Chloe Mueffelman pr'ed by 25cm to make the meet, while Tyler Goss ran an 11 second season best to swoop into the meet with a 9:02. Senior all-everything Kyla Nygaard ran a PR and sits in 25th in the 800. We'll hope for some scratches for her.

Of course Cole did Cole things and outkicked all but the La Crosse guys to run a school record and secure his spot at Nats.

The Bethel Men's 4 x 100 dropped .12 to move into 7th in the rankings, while their lineup change secured a 7th ranking in the 4 x 400 as well.

As mentioned in a different post, the Oles ran a massive PR in the 4 x 400 to snatch the 4 x 400 MIAC record from the Bethel squad that owned it before the race. It's unfathomable that this is the first time we have seen this lineup of all underclassmen, only one who is a true 400 runner. If I understand the Ole coaching structure correctly, I think the new men's coach actually trains three of the runners on the relay, but I’m sure the Coach Pattie’s acumen in the event is very valuable for the actual racing.

Bethel and Gustavus win the tally of others close on the bubble include (22 qualify)-

Jade Anstine (Gustavus) & Cameron McConnell (Bethel)- 29th in the 100m
Elliott Kent (Bethel) - tied for 23rd in the 400m - as a freshman! He's taken nearly 2 seconds off his high school PR
Logan Swanson (Bethel) - tied for 26th in the 110H
Josie Brown - Cobber 400H in 23rd after PR'ing!
Kyler Flunker (Gustavus) - tied for 24th in the High Jump
Lauren Selle - Cobber High Jumper tied for 23rd in the High Jump
Arabella Sutch (Gustavus) - 27th in shot put
Adam Hokanson (Bethel) - 26th in the hammer throw

The combined events are particularly brutal in the the "Oh, so close category" -
Hep - Claire Stein (St. Olaf) - 24th, Cobbers - Lauren Pearson and Kalli Malvey (both freshman) rank 27th and 28th.
Decathlon - Connor McCormick (Gustavus) is 23rd, while Soren Kastor (Carleton) is 24th.

The staff are not that young, but I'd assume they'll benefit from her mentorship and that of the very seasoned women's XC coach. I'm sure someone as on top of things as John Waters already put a plan in place so he can see improvements on the track side of things to match their XC MIAC success and better national results in the future.

He and the whole Ole fanbase have to be excited about the progression of Seppannen. He showed some promise of return to his high school form, but mostly seemed to flounder under Power. Kipnick did an excellent job of getting him to the next level this Outdoor season.

Are the Goss twins the fastest twins in MIAC history? Are they the fastest steeple twins in D3 history?

Chat GPT couldn't find any steepler twins.

As for MIAC twin rankings, I'd have them slightly ahead of the Smith Twins.
1. Goss Twins, Concordia.

2. Smith Twins, Bethel

3. Coffey/DeWall Twins

4. Thor & Noah Laack-Veeder, Carleton

4. Call Twins, St. Olaf

5. Peterson Twins, Carleton

Update - Connor made it! Quite a profession for the boy!

Im going to miss that GAC group of mens distance runners. Sackreiter and Janzen were just getting faster, and those stacked mileage weeks were only going to compound for long dividends. I'm excited to see what they end up doing after graduation.

Hutton Twins, St. Thomas.

Take it to the Summit league

Some fun story lines for the NCAA Championship -

St. Olaf and Bethel are separated by two tenths, but have never matched up with their full lineups. Both teams have held the MIAC record this year. The Oles appear to have Isabel Wyatt as an alternate who ran 57.37 in early May. Bethel's Madi Pelowski and Shalom Sulungaine are both running the open 400. They have freshman Adyson Gerbig who ran 1:04.91 in the MIAC 400H as their alternate.

Can Sulungaine or Pelowski challenge the MIAC record set by Megan Garaets last year?

Saint Mary's mid-distance star Mya Slavin's best 800m before this year was 2:19. Will the local crowd help her take ten second off in one year?

Three MIAC women are competing in the 400m Hurdles. Josie Brown of Concordia is .07 from her school record.

St. Olaf senior Kevin Turlington missed the MIAC 10K record by less than two seconds. He also was less than a second off the Ole 5000m record and has a chance to be the third MIAC man to run sub 14:00 after crosstown rivals Matt Wilkinson and Dale Kramer.

Bethel Senior Grant Nelson is poised to be the 5th man to run sub 46. Can he beat Coach Rock's facility record of 45.73?
Nelson and friends will surely also be eying the facility record of 3:08.04 set by Rock's squad in 2004.

Ole Long Jumper Max Albertson PR'ed in his last two meets and is a mere 3 centimeters from his school record.

Bethel Triple Jumper Ellie Hernes is only 11cm away from the MIAC record.

Cobber sixth year Cooper Folkestad will be searching for his first national title in his final go-around. Despite being highly ranked in multiple events, he has chosen to focus on the shot put. Could the MIAC go 1-2 with St.Scholastica's Trent Beseth hoping to better his lifetimie PR of 18.46?

What else are the MIACers excited for? Maybe a Bethel 4 x 100 record for seniors Liu and McConnell?

How does Wilkinson have the MIAC record but not the Carleton record? And how does a sub 14 guy not have hold the 10K record over an Ole?

Carleton was in the MWC when the Carleton record was set in the 70s

Any burning predictions for the day other than Oles getting booted from the stands for pre-gaming the meet and Knicks game? Which is very, very difficult to do in Wisconsin. Hopefully John Waters sits with them to keep control. Wonder if Power will show his face?

Cool to see the new Ole coach get their first field event All-American in decades. Bet that jumper is the first in line to shake the hand of John Waters. And I bet Waters is so happy about his role in the departure of his former coach.

Just tell me you don't know ball bro... Also Kevin Turkington is my mf goat and I'll stand on TS till I die!!!

What a run for Kevin! Dude had a real solid career and what a way to cap it off in a tough race