There certainly was no shortage of meets on the University of Minnesota Duluth men's and women's outdoor track and field docket this past weekend. For a three-day stretch beginning Thursday, the Bulldogs sent representatives to the prestigious Drake Relays (Thursday through Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa), the Grand View University Viking Classic (Friday in Des Moines), the St. Mary's University Open (Saturday in Winona, Minn.) and the Drake Alternative Meet (Saturday on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.).
Among the numerous UMD highlights from the weekend:
•Allie Ruden took her first collegiate crack at the 3,000-meter steeplechase and captured the title at the Viking Classic with a time of 11:41.36. Fellow sophomore Dan Nielsen placed first in that same event on the men's side, finishing in 9:54.57 while senior Rob Kostick was second in 10:02.26. Junior Joel Johnson won the 1500 meter run with a time of 4:07.48. Junior Kate Hassing (400-meter dash; 1:00.18) and freshman Hannah Olson (1,500-meter run; 4:59.87) both turned in second-place finishes that day.
•On Saturday, junior Nathan Knop walked away with the St. Mary's Open javelin crown with a toss of 173'-07" - almost 20 feet more than the runnerup, Andy Grossman of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Knop's teammate, sophomore Nick Moran, posted the meet's second-best effort in the hammer throw (162'-08"). The Bulldogs also went 2-3-4 in the high jump with senior Andy Heffele, sophomore Eric Gahr, and Knop doing the honors.
•At the Drake Relays, the 4 x 1,600-meter relay unit of junior Tyler Stevens, senior Ryan Eason, junior Jason Coffin and junior Cole Toepfer posted a time of 17:31.67 -- the second fastest time in UMD history and just 0.57 seconds off the school record -- to place eighth in the University/College Division Thursday. Stevens, sophomores Phil d'Entremont and Scott Urban and Toepfer took sixth in the College Division distance medley relay to days later and did so in 10:04.15. That is the third best mark ever recorded by a UMD quartet.
A select number of Bulldogs will be in Aberdeen, S.D. this Sunday and Monday for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Decathlon (men) and Heptathlon (women) championships.
