The Red Raider track and field team put together an impressive night, as the men and women combined to win five events at the Bronco Invite, hosted by Hastings College last Saturday.
On the women’s side, senior Lauren Spranger was the lone champion for Northwestern as she won the 400-meter dash by finishing in just under a minute.
The 800-meter run was the highest scoring event for the women as three Red Raiders placed in the top five. Sophomore Katie Landhuis took silver with a time of 2:17. Freshman Rebekah Muilenburg claimed fourth by edging out sophomore teammate Katie Bosch by just over a second.
The 4×100-meter relay team of Jahdai Dunk, Jana Vermeer, Devin Bloemendaal and Bailey Kennedy finished third, two seconds behind the first place team from Doane College.
Landhuis, Muilenburg, Spranger and Emily Sorensen ran in the 4×100-meter relay team which finished third also.
For the NW men, it was the distance runners’ night to shine. NW dominated the 800-meter run, won by sophomore Tim Rose, followed in second by freshman Peter Hollinger. Senior Ryan Weitgenant cracked the top five as well.
The Red Raiders continued their reign in the 1500-meter run as sophomore Peter Smith was crowned the champion with a time of 4:15. Senior Elliott Johnson was close behind, finishing third in his first career 1500-meter race.
Sophomore Tanner Goetsch earned the top honor in the 5000-meter run, while teammate junior Will Norris finished first by almost a minute in the 10,000-meter race, rounding out the top place finishers for the Red Raiders.
The 400-meter dash also produced two top five finishes for NW as sophomore Aaron Lemon and junior Austin Krier finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jordan Strand edged out teammate Zack Rice for third place by 18 hundreths of a second in the 110-meter hurdles.
Finally, two Red Raider men relay teams finished second place in the meet. First, the 4×100-meter relay of Derrick Akers, T.J. Spykstra, Alex Van Roekel and Levi TeBrink was edged out by a team from Nebraska Wesleyan. The 4×400-meter relay team of Lemon, Krier, Johnson and TeBrink finished just behind a team from Concordia University.
The NW men’s and women’s track and field teams will return to action April 9 as they head to Sioux Center for the Dordt Invite, beginning at 12 p.m.
