The men’s and women’s track and field teams headed to the John Dalton Invite in Vermillion, S.D. on Saturday, February 6. Junior Stacey Dietrich ran to a fourth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles with 9.47, narrowly missing the provisional qualifying mark by .05 seconds. Junior Corrie Fautsch ran 1:41.23 in the 600-meter run to place fourth, while junior Krystina Smith placed ninth (1:45.6) and sophomore Teresa Scholten placed tenth (1:45.7) in the same event. Freshman Ana Morgan added a fifth-place finish in the 400-meter dash with 1:02.18. The women’s 4×4 team of Dietrich, Morgan, Fautsch and Smith captured second in the meet with a time of 4:09.68. Other top-ten finishers for the women were junior Jenna Sorensen (eighth-5:39) and freshman Corrine Muyskens (tenth-5:53) in the one mile, junior Kara Den Herder (ninth-45’4.25) in the weight throw, freshman Leslie Stover (tenth-2:32) in the 800-meter run, sophomore Becca Wiggins (tenth-3:29) in the 1000-meter run and freshman Jana Olson (tenth) in the pole vault. Olson’s vault of 10’0 tied the Northwestern indoor school record.
Freshman Brandon Schuler led the men’s team, placing seventh in the 1000-meter run with 2:41. Senior Andy Norris ran a 2:04.11 to finish tenth in the mile, while freshman Derrious Johnson placed tenth in the triple jump with 40’2.25. Senior Nick Tjeerdsma and freshman Jesse Baldwin each added a 14th-place finish, with Tjeerdsma running 1:23.4 in the 600-meter run and Baldwin running the one mile in 4:51. The 4×4 relay team finished in tenth place with a time of 3:36.19. Team members were freshmen Mark Johnson, Taylor Hoekstra, Rick Te Grootenhuis and Brandon Schuler.
Northwestern will finish up their regular season at Dordt Friday, February 12. The meet, which starts at 4 p.m., gives athletes a final chance to set qualifying marks for the GPAC meet.