Men’s track and field wins three events in third-place finish at MIAC Outdoor Championships

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College men’s track and field team won three events as part of a third-place performance at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday at Macalester Stadium.

Junior Lance Nemecek, senior Andrew Skemp, and St. Olaf’s 4×800-meter relay of first year Jackson bullock, senior Sean Hartney, junior Zach Martin, and first year Austin McInturff accounted for the Oles’ three event victories over the two-day meet. St. Olaf compiled 116 points to finish 26.5 points ahead of fourth-place Concordia-Moorhead. Bethel University edged Saint John’s University by half a point to win the team title with 207 points.

Over the duration of the meet, St. Olaf had eight all-conference (places 1-3) and 10 honorable mention all-conference (places 4-6) performances, including a pair of runner-up showings by junior Ignatius Fitzgerald in distance events. Fitzgerald was second in both the 1,500-meter run and the 3,000-meter steeplechase, breaking the program record in the latter event in the process.

FRIDAY RECAP

Titles from the 4×800-meter relay and Skemp highlighted the opening day of the meet for St. Olaf, which earned 55 points on Friday to sit second in the team standings behind only Saint John’s. The Oles registered four top-two showings in the three track-event finals on the day.

Bullock, Hartney, Martin, and McInturff won the 4×800-meter relay in 7:41.52, edging the Johnnies’ unit by just under one-and-a-half seconds while setting a new facility record by nearly four seconds. The performance marked the first time St. Olaf won the event since posting the meet record in 2016-17 and slotted the quartet in at No. 3 on the program’s all-time list.

In the final event of the night, Skemp, junior Kevin Turlington, and junior Gael Manzur Strandlund recorded a 1-2-4 finish in the 10,000-meter run, which was pushed back a couple of hours due to temperatures in the 80s during the day. After being the runner-up the last two years, Skemp won his first individual conference title in 31:19.19 to give the Oles their second champion in the event in the last three seasons.

Turlington collected All-MIAC honors after being edged out by Skemp at the line by less than half a second in 31:19.66. Manzur Strandlund landed in the honorable-mention spots for the second season in a row in fourth (31:47.42), while first year Cooper Gundersen also scored with a PR of 32:23.89 in eighth.

In the first track event of the day, Fitzgerald was the runner-up in the 1,500-meter run (3:50.97) for the first of his two second-place showings at the meet. Junior Lance Nemecek (1:54.55), junior Cullen Moore (1:55.75), and sophomore Christian Fells (1:55.87) all qualified for the finals of the 800-meter run, with Nemecek posting the top qualifying time of the day.

Sophomore Max Albertson grabbed honorable-mention honors in the long jump for the second season in a row by placing fifth with a mark of 6.86 meters (22′ 6 ¼”) on his first attempt. Senior Andrew Cogley also scored for the Oles in the high jump after taking eighth by clearing 1.87 meters (6′ 1 ½”).

SATURDAY RECAP

Nemecek’s victory in the 800-meter run and Fitzgerald’s school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase paced the Oles on day two, as St. Olaf wound up third in the team standings. St. Olaf had three top-three and 11 top-six performances on the final day.

Nemecek won his first individual conference title in the 800-meter run, edging Bethel’s Victor Lelinga by less than three-tenths of a second in 1:51.32. That time ranks second on St. Olaf’s all-time list, as Nemecek won the Oles’ first title in the event since Kevin Skrip ’16 in 2015-16. Fells (5th, 1:53.38) and Moore (7th, 1:53.83) were separated by less than half a second in the scoring places as well.

Fitzgerald broke the school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase set by Will Kelly ’24 by less than one second with his runner-up time of 8:52.30, collecting his second All-MIAC accolade in as many days in the process. The performance also solidified Fitzgerald in qualifying for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, as the time ranks seventh nationally.

Junior Jack Deaver rose to seventh on St. Olaf’s all-time list and secured All-MIAC honors with a third-place finish in the 3,00-meter steeplechase (9:10.33) to give the Oles two of the top three in the event. Sophomore Lex Kaye was also in the top five, earning Honorable Mention All-MIAC honors in fifth (9:34.52).

The day after finishing 1-2 in the 10,000-meter run, Skemp and Turlington placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 5,000-meter run with times of 15:13.04 and 15:13.13. Senior Eh Ler Moo, first year Gavin Vogel, first year Luke Jones, and first year Jakob Eenigenburg added another honorable-mention accolade on the track with a sixth-place showing in the 4×100-meter relay (42.78).

St. Olaf had three other top-six results in the field events, led by a fourth-place finish from first year Kale Kardonsky in the shot put (15.09m, 49′ 6 ¼”). Albertson posted a personal-best mark in the triple jump to take fifth (13.68m, 44′ 10 ¾”), while Cogley was fifth in the javelin throw (53.70m, 176′ 2″), a result that ranks sixth on St. Olaf’s program list.