ROCK ISLAND, ILL.— The Central College track and field teams put some good marks down despite the rough conditions at Augustana College's Meet of Champions Friday and Saturday.

In the team standings, Central's men were fifth and the women were ninth. Central was competing without several of its top athletes of both genders because of a different meet for its multi-event athletes and an academic conference in Chicago.

"It's a championship style meet with a lot of good teams.," coach Brandon Sturman said.  "It was a good experience to see this kind of competition early on. Outside of the tough competition we had to battle the weather. It was cold and windy and not what we were hoping for."

Kale Purcell (junior, Holton, Kan.) had a pair of runner-up finishes in the men's triple jump (4 feet, 7.75 inches) and long jump (22-9.25).
           
"Kale took advantage of the opportunity to do both at a big meet with a lot of recovery time," "Both of those marks are life-time bests."

Kira Hooper (junior, Henderson, N.C., Citrus Valley HS) ran the third-fastest 10,000-meter race in Dutch women's history Friday night in a time of 37 minutes, 16.35 seconds, finishing second. Teammate Ellie Roorda (senior, Pella) was sixth in 41:34.89.
           
"That's a really good mark for Kira," Sturman said. "She's getting better each week and had a great race. It's exciting to see her continue to excel after cross country."
Connor Miklos (senior, Lockport, Ill., Providence Catholic HS), was Central's only individual champion, taking the 110-meter hurdles time in a time of 14.86 seconds. Teammate Grant Miller (sophomore, Norwalk) was third in 15.02 seconds.
           
Miller was also second in the javelin throw with a toss of 157-0.
           
"Grant's going to be a huge asset to our program in that event moving forward," Sturman said. "He's really taken to the javelin."
           
Other top-five finishes for Central were Jack Brown (freshman, Norwalk) and Randy Jimenez (junior, Liberty Center, Southeast Warren HS) in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, who took second (9:19.91) and fourth (9:27.36), respectively.

Kate Hoogensen (senior, Ankeny, Centennial HS) was fifth in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase in 12:04.09. In the women's 400-meter dash, Lizzy Van Utrecht (freshman, Ottumwa, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont HS) was second in 1:00.41 and Lauren Brown (senior, Underwood) was fourth in 1:01.51. Abby Gruver (senior, Lynnville, Lynnville-Sully HS) was third in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.96 while Alyssa Mayhew (senior, North Aurora, Ill., West Aurora HS) was fifth in 1:10.24

Central will have athletes entered in the Drake Relays and the Kip Janvrin Open hosted by Simpson College next weekend.