Doane College Sports

Tracksters post season, personal bests

SEWARD — A host of Doane track and field competitors turned in personal and seasonal best performances Friday at the Concordia Twilight meet in the Tigers’ final action before the NAIA Championships next week.

While a gusty north wind hampered efforts of many of the runners, it seemed to aid field event marks just as much.

Nate Teten cleared a season-best 15 feet, 9 3/4 inches to win the pole vault and move up to ninth on the 2012 NAIA list.

Ben Wolfe’s javelin sailed through the air with the greatest of ease, landing after a winning 193-1 flight that represented a personal best.

The Tiger men’s discus throwers reveled in the breeze, as Zack Lindsley and Alvin Voss recorded season-best tosses of 174-4 and 167-8, placing second and third.

The marks bumped them into second and ninth respectively on the NAIA discus chart. Teammates Darin Smith and Vince Krejci were fifth and sixth at 160-2 and 157-3.

Erin DeVries, aiming for a spot in the NAIA heptathlon, posted personal bests in both the high jump (5-1) and long jump (17-6).

Tiger All-American high jumper Alyssa McDowell got back on track with a 5-7 clearance to win that event.

On the track, a bid by the Tiger women’s 4x400 relay team for an automatic national meet qualifying time came up a fraction of a second short, but they did meet the provisional standard and will compete at the national meet on an at-large berth.

Blair Dixon, Casarah Schutt, Erin Klein and Jessa Sughroue clocked a season-best time, winning the race in 3 minutes, 55.85 seconds. That amounted to 0.85 of a second off the automatic qualifying time.

The Tiger national meet qualifiers will sandwich a few workouts around final exams this week before departing for Marion, Ind. and the NAIA championships Monday. The three-day meet begins May 24.

For more on Friday's meet, see the May 16 print or E-edition of The Crete News.