Across the country on Saturday, 11 collegiate athletes broke four minutes for the mile, a 16-year-old girl set a new record for the high school mile and Olympians set new records or came close on the track. Marquette was part of the exciting day of action, as one school record, two freshman records, and several Big East qualifying marks were set at Iowa State’s Bill Bergan Invitational.
One of the top performances of the day came from junior Carlye Schuh, as she set the indoor program record for the women’s long jump, even after fouling three of her six jumps. The new record of 19 feet, 5 1/2 inches came on her final attempt of the day.
“It was pretty awesome – I was excited,” Schuh said. “It’s good to be back to jumping in the 5.90s again, since I haven’t done that in a while after taking off last weekend.”
Coach Bert Rogers said there is still more potential for Schuh to better her mark this year and put herself in a position to make noise in Geneva, Ohio, for the conference championship.
“I don’t see why she can’t jump farther and move up that list,” Rogers said. “The next major mark is 20 feet, and she’s jumped near 19-mid quite a couple times in her career here. If she jumps like that when we’re at Big Easts, she will be in contention to win the event.”
Molly Hanson also made school history by setting the freshman record in the 800-meter run, and she cracked the school’s top 10 in the event overall. It was her second 800-meter race of the year. After her run at the Illini Classic, there were signs that she could break the freshman record.
In the same event, Katie Tolan and Nicole Ethier notched personal bests and set Big East qualifying marks.
More runners on the men’s side punched their ticket to Geneva, as senior Kyle Winter ran his first 800-meter race of the season and finished seventh overall at 1:52.88. Winter was running under the weather against some of the best talent in the country, as Iowa State’s Edward Kemboi (1:47.43) and Minnesota’s Harun Abda (1:48.44) ran the second- and fourth-fastest time in the NCAA this year.
Seniors Patrick Maag and Connor Callahan and junior Jack Senefeld finished 10th, 11th, and 12th, respectively in the men’s 3,000-meter run. Maag took control of the race for the Golden Eagles as Callahan and Senefeld joined him in a small pack. Maag’s time of 8:22 also lands him at No. 9 on the all-time list, hopping over Callahan’s time of 8:22.97 in 2012.
Similarly, sophomore Will Koeck passed redshirt sophomore Bret Hardin on the all-time list for the weight throw as they both achieved personal bests. Koeck finished third at the meet with his toss of 18.07-meters, with Hardin behind him at 18.04-meters.
Hardin has taken note of changes in Koeck since they started working together.
“He’s matured a lot,” Hardin said. “He’s working on the things that he needs to work on and doing things right.”
Koeck and Hardin will go head to head again this weekend at a meet for the throwers at the Parkside Classic. The rest of Marquette’s track and field team will travel to Notre Dame for the Meyo Invitational.
