Outdoor track and field season officially began this past weekend for Marquette. Over the past week, Marquette sent athletes to three different meets, at Southern Illinois, Texas State and Texas spanning the entire weekend.
Junior high jumper Wally Ellenson easily set the Marquette outdoor high jump record at the Texas relays. Ellenson cleared 7-feet, 2.25-inches to break the previous mark of 7-feet, 1-inch. He took second in the event behind Jacorian Duffield of Texas Tech, who cleared 7-feet, 7-inches to claim first.
Ellenson’s personal best, set at an indoor meet earlier this year, is 7-feet, 5.75-inches, so it would not be surprising to see him break his own record later this year.
Ellenson wasn’t the only standout athlete to compete at the Texas relays, though. Senior Kathryn Koeck won the hammer toss with a throw of 59.79 meters. The throw set both a personal record and a Marquette record. Koeck is the first Marquette female to ever win an event at the Texas relays.
“Proud of Kat. She really came to compete today,” coach Bert Rogers told GoMarquette.com. “It was a very talented field and for her to have such a big (personal record), throw the school record, and win the meet is super exciting.”
Marquette also enjoyed success at the Bobcat Invite at Texas State, as sophomore John Krzyskowski won the javelin event with a throw of 64.51 meters, which was good enough to best his nearest competitor by nearly five meters and the rest of the field by at least 12 meters. It was also the second-best throw of his Marquette career.
Marquette won two events at Southern Illinois. Senior Katie Tolan won the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.62 seconds. Meanwhile, freshman Jessica Parker claimed first in the 5,000-meter run with 17:46.7, which was 16 seconds faster than Southern Illinois’ Tori Parry, who took second place in the event.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will be back in action at the Eastern Illinois Big Blue Invitational in Charleston, Illinois, Saturday, April 4. After that, the teams will return home to Valley Fields for their first and only home meet of the outdoor season on April 10.
