MIAC meet proves solid

The Pipers finish second at pre-conference meet.

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First-year Merina Lenz gets great height on jumps at the pre MIAC meet hosted by Macalester on Feb. 28. (Photo by Gino Terrell)

The Pipers track and field finished with two thrilling races on the men’s 4×400 meter relay to close out the meet. Although in both races the lead was taken from the Pipers in the final seconds, junior Jack Micholic thought it was enough for them to earn a celebratory dinner. After the race, Micholic told his fellow teammates who came off the track that they should grab some pizza and praised their efforts in the relay. “That was legit,” Micholic said.

Last Friday, the Pipers traveled to Macalester for their pre-MIAC meet where they competed against Macalester, Gustavus Adolphus, Augsburg, Bethel and St. Catherine, added to the mix for the women. This would be the Pipers’ final meet before their Indoor MIAC Championships, which starts on Thursday. Both the men’s and women’s track and field finished in second place.

“Today [went] really well. Hamline competed really well as a team,” Micholic said after the meet. “We’re peaking now and we’re just really excited for the upcoming conference meet at St. John’s.”

Despite a strong finish by the men’s four racers on the 4×400 meter relay, Gustavus managed to edge them out by seventenths of a second. This placed the Gusties first in the race and allowed them to claim first place at the meet with 135.5 total points, narrowly beating out the Pipers who scored 129.5 points.

“The four by four [4×400 Meter Relay] is always a super exciting race … in conference it’s probably the loudest race because it’s the last one and it can make or break a team,” Micholic said. “It will be interesting to see what Hamline can do at conference because that wasn’t our fastest team [in the lineup].”

First place finishes for the men’s included senior captain Travis Latzke in the long jump, senior Collin Dixson for the weight throw and junior Mark Volker in the pole vault.

The women’s earned a total of 123 points at the meet and came in second behind Macalester at 141. First place finishes included junior Jessica Putland in the weight throw, first-year Merina Lenz in the triple jump and sophomores Carolyn and Marolyn Saulsberry.

Before the meet, women’s runner and indoor conference qualifier sophomore Marolyn Saulsberry said she felt the previous meet at St. Johns was an off one and she wanted to gain momentum back with a strong performance at the Macalester meet.

“I’d like to [get] another good meet in before the MIAC,” she said.

Marolyn did just that as she placed first in the following events: 60 meter dash, 400 meter dash and in the preliminaries for 60 meter hurdles. Her twin, sophomore Carolyn, won first place in the final 60 meter hurdles to earn her team ten points.

Carolyn explained she had done much better this season than she anticipated. Her improvements this year have qualified her in the MIAC Indoor Championships.

“I feel I’m really good this season. I’ve been hitting a lot of PR’s [personal records] every meet so that’s been awesome and I feel like our team is doing really good this season,” Carolyn said.

Carolyn links her performance growth with her new training.

“This year my trainings have been more effective. Last year it was a lot of learning,” she said. “But this year was a lot more applying and learning how to get faster and [run] farther distances.”

Carolyn said the team’s focus throughout the season is to improve at each meet.

“We try to use the meets to build upon the team,” Carolyn said. “MIAC Indoor Championships is kind of like our midterms because we’re building towards outdoor championships.”

Marolyn said she entered the season with high expectations from her coaches, expectations that even surpassed her goals.

“I came into this season with my coaches hoping [I’d] go to nationals. I never necessarily expected to go to Indoor Nationals but it’s actually becoming kind of a possibility now,” Marolyn said. “Right now I’m sitting fairly well [at conference] and my coaches expect me to win at least a couple [events].”

She attributed her early season success to Shawn Johnson-Hipp, head coach of the women’s track and field.

“[Johnson-Hipp] always is pushing me in practice. She has higher set goals set aside for me all the time, so it definitely helped me,” Marolyn said.