With the wind swirling around the campus of the College of Saint Benedict, the UW-River Falls track and field team was able to persevere despite the less than stellar conditions and churn out some really impressive performances.
"Other than some strong head winds coming down the home stretch, it was a beautiful day for a track and field meet" said head coach
Colleen Sowa. "All of our athletes have worked hard all year long and it's fun to see that hard work pay off."
Peter Place had one of the most impressive performances of the day in the hammer throw. On his very first throw of the event, Place launched the hammer a distance of 52.63m, a new personal best by over 6m. Not only beating his previous best, the throw also beat every other throw by every other competitor in the field, giving the senior a win in the event.
On the women's side, it was a familiar name that found herself at the top of the podium in multiple events:
Lexi LeFever. After taking first in the 100m with a time of 12.30, LeFever also crossed the line in front of everyone in the 200m at 25.87. Not content to only win on the track, she then moved to the long jump pit and took first place there as well with a leap of 5.52m.
Several other runners churned out great efforts in other events, including
Emmy Farago coming in 2nd in the 800m (2:23.69),
Sarah Langlois' 3rd place finish in the 400m (1:02.81), and Maria Laundenbach's 2nd place finish in the 1500m (5:09.21).
Also impressing was
Samantha Krueger taking 2nd in the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.10 and
Marlee Dietrich doing the same in the 400 hurdles with a time of 1:09.50. Krueger's best performance, though, came in the pole vault as she took 1st place by clearing 3.25m.
For the men,
Dylan Wachter came in 2nd in the 800m (1:54.02),
Nate Rixmann took 3rd in the 200m (22.98), and
Beau Clemmensen took 3rd in the steeplechase (11:08.50).
When all was said and done, the Falcons produced nine different results that cracked the Top-10 list in UW-RF history.
UW-RF will now host the Falcon Invitational on April 10, the first outdoor home meet of the season.
