ROCK ISLAND, ILL.  — A small contingent of Central College track and field athletes competed at the Viking Olympics hosted by Augustana College (Ill.) Saturday.
           
The Dutch women were 14th of 24 teams the men were 23rd of 28 teams with only a handful of athletes competing, predominantly the throwers.
           
"I think we did pretty good overall," coach Brandon Sturman said. "It was the first meet coming back from break and the weather wasn't the best. It was challenging with the waiting around between in flights because it was a big meet."
           
Emily Burt (senior, Freeport, Ill.) had a third-place effort in the shot put, reaching 42 feet, 9.5 inches. She also was 18 th in the discus throw, tossing it 120-11.
           
"Emily had a really good day overall, finishing on a high note by making the finals," Sturman said.
           
Gillian Streit (sophomore, Manilla, Harlan HS) was second in the discus throw (145-2). Kennedy Morris (sophomore, Earlham) was fifth in the discus throw (132-1) and ninth in the hammer throw (138-1).
           
Nathan Fitzgerald (senior, Elkader, Central HS) placed in both the men's discus throw and hammer throw. He was eighth in the discus (148-5) and ninth in the hammer throw (144-10).
           
The only non-thrower for Central was women's hurdler Lynzie Miller (senior, Des Moines, Lincoln HS) who was second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1 minute, 07.65 seconds.
           
"Lynzie ran well," Sturman said. "She wanted to get a race under her belt. She ran about the same time she finished with last year. It's a good start, but we've got bigger goals. Now we know where we are at so we have something to work off of."
           
Next weekend, Central will host the Central Invitational on April 5 and 6 at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium.