The Bulldogs had their final tune up of the indoor season before competing at the conference meet next weekend. Saturday the Bulldogs edged the competitors at the St. John's University Invite, a quadrangular including St. John's(men), St. Ben's (women), Gustavus, Concordia of Moorhead, and UMD. Both the UMD men and women topped the team scores, the women leading with 172 and the men with 169.
For the men, Senior Brian Ott had a fine day winning the 200 in a season best (22.59), and also anchored the 4 X 400 relay to 2nd place with a (49.4) carry. Freahman Tyler Traynor had his best day as a Bulldog placing 3rd in the 55 with a PR (6.77), and he was 6th in the 200 in an indoor PR (23.47). Spencer Carlson was 2nd with a PR of (1:24.74) in the 600. Junior Jordan Bjorhus edged twin Tyler to win the mile (4:25.93 to 4:27.47), Eric Atkinson won the 1000 (2:38.60) and Mike Kramer won the 3000 (9:06.75). Steve Milkovich recovering from a stress fracture had his first meet of the season capturing 2nd in the triple jump (43' 6") and third in the long jump (20' 4.25"), Jimmy Warmuth was 3rd in the triple jump and high hurdles (43' 3.25") and (8.04), Captain Tom Soldner continued his fine season winning the weight throw with a toss (54' 4.75") and setting an all time best (49' 4.25") in the shot finishing 2nd.
On the women's side, three National provisional marks were made, the first by Liz Palkie, lowering her season best 800 mark (2:13.19) in winning the 800 with teammate Alyssa Wendt following in a career best (2:15.54), Maria Swanson won 2 events with 2 career bests; the shot (43'7.5") - a national provisional mark, and the weight throw (51'1/4").
Other women all time bests were set by sophomores Rachael Stack and Whitney Hines in the 3000 with 2nd and 3rd place finishes (10:36.93) and (10:37.18). Rebekah Kok was 2nd in the 55 hurdles with an indoor PR (8.88), Kristen Haak had a season best (7.51) in placing 2nd in the 55, Laura Bock was 3rd (7.63), and Jennifer Griffin set a PR (7.75) for 4th. Carrie Wardell won the 1000 with a PR (3:05.17). In the throwing events sophomore Libby Fandry captured 3rd in the shot with a lifetime best (41' 5.25").
Next up is the Conference Indoor Championships at Bemidji State University on Friday and Saturday Feb 27 and 28. There will be 11 women's teams and 10 men's teams - the format is 3 entries per event plus 4 wild card entries. Friday field events start at Noon with running at 3:00 p.m., Saturday field events start at 10:00 with the running finals at 1:00 p.m.
