Men, women garner medals at Swede Invite
Saturday's warm temperatures seemed to bring out the best in the Tabor track and field team in its inaugural outdoor meet of the season at Bethany College's Swede Invitational.
Despite no team scores being kept for the meet, the Lady Bluejays' day was highlighted by picking up a pair of gold medals, a quartet of silvers, and a pair of bronze.
Providing the highlights for the men's team was a trio of runners-up and four third-place finishes.
"It was a good first meet for our team," Bluejay coach Dave Kroeker said. "We needed to get into competition to see where we are in our training.
"I thought we competed very well, and now we need to work to improve these initial performances."
Apparently picking up where she left off a year ago, Mandi Janzen beat teammate and third-place finisher Carissa Litton's high jump of 4'4" by 10 inches for first place.
The women's team earned its other top finish with distance specialist Angie Jost running a 5:18-1500 meters.
Tamara McCarren finished with a progressive day, winning three silver medals in shot put, discus and hammer throws with tosses of 37'7", 132'5" and 113'8", respectively.
The other silver medal for the women's team came from Karen Patton running a 23:14-5000 meters.
Erin Voth edged teammate Esther Richert for third in 800 meters by nearly three seconds, and Lahna Daughtery ran a 1:19 in the 400 meter hurdles.
Caleb Stanton's second-place time of 49.95 in 400 meters, and Landon Goertzen's 1:59 finish in the 800 meters provided the spark for the men's team.
Goertzen and Stanton teamed up with Pete Richert and Robert Haude to run a second-place 4x400 meter relay of 3:27.
The quartet of bronze medals came from Pete Richert, Brent Brockmueller, Brian Lightner, and Kevin Nickel.
Pete Richert ran a 4:15 1500, Nickel, a 1:59 800, and Lightner finished the 400 meter hurdles in 59.17.
Brockmueller heaved the hammer 130'7" to round out the Bluejays' third place finishers.
The Bluejays are in action today at 12 p.m. in the Hutchinson Community College meet.
Results Swede Invitational
Women's results: Long jump — VanDoren, 15' 3 1/2. Hammer — McCarren, 34.65; Hope, 26.26. Pole Vault — Burns, 7'6", 1500m — Jost, 5:18.33. High jump — Janzen, 5'2". 5000m — Patton 23:14.28. 800m — Voth, 2:52.83; Richert, 2:55.45. 200m — Litton, 28.14. 100m — VanDoren, 12.92; 400m hurdles — Daugherty, 1:19.43. Shot Put — McCarren, 37'7"; Hanley, 34'5". Discus — McCarren, 40.37.
Men's results: Pole vault — Higerd, 9'6". 5000m — Nickel, 16:55.99. Hammer — Brockmueller, 39.81. 1500m — Richert, 4:15.05. 400m — Stanton, 49.95. 400m hurdles — Lightner, 59.17. 4x400 — 3:27.47. 800m — Goertzen, 1:59.08. Discus — Brockmueller, 34.80.
