May 8, 2009
(release courtesy of Larry Happel & Scott Kretzman, Central College sports information)

PELLA, IOWA . . . Loras College and Central College grabbed the early leads in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively, of the Iowa Conference Track and Field Championships at Pella Friday.

Through six events at Central College’s Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium the Loras men have 66 points to Central’s 56. Wartburg is third with 37.

Through seven events the Central women have racked up 74.5 points, with NCAA Division III indoor champ Wartburg at 62 and Luther also among the leaders with 53.

The meet was delayed for approximately 1 hour as thunderstorms rolled through the area. Calm conditions with unseasonably warm temperatures then gave way to cooler weather and stiff northwest winds.

The Loras men recorded a pair of victories on opening day. Chris Buresh was the winner in the pole vault at 15-feet, 6.5-inches while Brian Westemeier took the hammer throw (170-6). Conference indoor MVP Eric Bertelsen of Buena Vista was the long jump winner with an NCAA Division III meet automatic-qualifying effort of 24-0.75. Wartburg had two victories. Steven Salinas of Wartburg took the javelin (179-6) while Brian Chenoweth raced to first in the 10,000 meters in 31:50.88.

The Central women didn’t win any events Friday, but had taken the top two spots in the league heptathlon last weekend and added a second-place effort by Carissa Bentz in the long jump Friday. But meet favorite Wartburg had several dominating performances in the preliminaries and also recorded a pair of victories. Skye Morrison won the long jump (17-11.75) and Anna Kraayenbrink topped the field in the 10,000 meters (39:09.34).

Luther also had a pair of women’s victories. Lauren Boleen was the javelin winner (137-0) for the Norse and Liz Knutson captured the pole vault (9-5.75).

The marquis performance of the first day was turned in by Simpson College’s Lauren Bucklin in the preliminaries as she blasted past the field in the 100 meter hurdles, establishing a new league record in 13.92 seconds. That’s well under the previous league record of 14.32 seconds established by Lucy Joseph of Wartburg in 2008. It not only bettered the automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA Division III meet (14.35), but would also meet the automatic standard in Division II and give her provisional qualifying status for an NCAA Division I regional meet.

The meet concludes Saturday with field events starting at 10 a.m. and running events at 1 p.m.

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