DUBUQUE — The Central College men's track and field team had a trio of scoring enries in three different events Friday to put the team in the lead at the American Rivers Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Central had four men score in the decathlon, three in the high jump and 3,000-meter steeplechase and also had a pair of scorers in the discus throw. The Dutch have 75.5 points through eight scored events, leading the University of Dubuque by 1.5 points.
"It's awesome to come out of day one in first place," coach
Brandon Sturman said. "We really took advantage of the events that were straight finals"
Caleb Silver (sophomore, Conrad, BCLUW HS) ascended to No. 3 on Central's top-10 list for the 3,000-meter steeplechase after a winning time of 9:21.31.
Will DeHaan (junior, DeWitt, Central DeWitt HS) was fourth (9:24.92) and
Jerry Lotz (senior, Yokosuka, Japan, Nile C. Kinnick HS) was seventh (9:35.81).
"Caleb came out of nowhere and put himself into national contention," Sturman said. "
In the high jump,
Sam Beatty (sophomore, Mount Pleasant) had a winning clearance of 6-7.5.
Drake Lewis (junior, Lathrop, Mo.) was second (6-6.25) and
Matt Riedemann (freshman, Calumet, South O'Brien HS) was fifth (6-5).
"It was great to have those guys go 1-2 in the high jump" Sturman said. "Matt took some time away from track for football this spring so for him to come in and score for us is awesome."
Brody Klein (freshman, Rainier, Wash.) earned all-conference honors in the decathlon finishing second with 5,846 points.
Jaxon Thompson (freshman, Marion, Linn-Mar HS) was fourth (5,744 points),
Lucas Heitz (sophomore, Adel, ADM HS) was sixth (5,540 points) and
Nick Thompson (junior, Newhall, Benton HS) was seventh, 5360 points).
Brock Lewis (junior, Lathrop, Mo.) also secured all-league status with a second-place long jump performance. He leapt 24-2.5 and was an inch shy of tying the school record.
Jack Sagan (junior, Riverside, Ill., Riverside-Brookfield HS),
Adam Sylvia (sophomore, Boston, Mass., Old Rochester HS),
Noah Jorgensen (freshman, Sidney) and DeHaan were fifth in the 4x800-meter relay in a time of 7:53.71.
Theo Baldus (junior, St. Ansgar) had a fourth-place effort in the discus throw (155-1) while
Thomas Spoehr (junior, Bennington, Neb.) was eighth in the discus (144-4) and shot put (43-3.75)
Joe Stein (freshman, Milford, Spirit Lake HS) is headed to the finals in two events after finishing in the top eight of the 100-meter dash (sixth, 10.84 seconds) and 200-meter dash (third, 21.87 seconds).
Other qualifiers for Saturday's finals were Jorgenson in the 800-meter run (seconds, 1:53.09),
Carter Tryon (junior, Winterset) in the 400-meter hurdles (seventh, 56.41 seconds) and
Nolan Reynolds (sophomore, Montezuma) in the 400-meter dash (eighth, 50.24 seconds).
The third and final day of action gets underway at 10 a.m. Saturday with field events.
"Obviously, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow to maintain and continue to build off of where we are at," Sturman said."
