Augustana University Athletics

RESULTS | DAY ONE RECAP

BEMIDJI, Minn. - Three titles on day two of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships earned the Vikings two top-three team finishes. The Vikings men took second with 117 points while the women placed third with a 91-point total.
 
Minnesota State collected the men's title with 184 points and Minnesota Duluth edged the University of Mary by four points with a 143-point mark.

"Our whole coaching staff is really excited about our overall team performances," head coach Tracy Hellman said. "Adding three more individual titles to our five from yesterday really shows our athlete's hard work throughout the whole season."
 
Augustana swept the men's and women's 800-meter runs, with Aduo Omot winning the men's race in record-breaking fashion. Omot led wire-to-wire and finished with a new NSIC Indoor Championship best time of 1:53.49. Henrik Hansson placed third, missing out on second by just three thousandths of a second.
 
Kayla Mescher collected her first indoor conference title last season and she defended it well, winning the women's 800-meter run in 2:15.54. Mescher's partner on the Vikings' DMR champion team also grabbed an individual win, with Emma Anderson taking the women's 1,000-meter run title in 2:57.79.
 
Harald Karbo led a three-Viking charge in the men's mile, but his late charge couldn't hold and the sophomore took second with a 4:15.80 time. Karbo passed eventual winner Cole Toepfer of Minnesota Duluth at the 200-meter mark, but Toepfer surged back in the final 50 meters to edge Karbo by 0.14 seconds. Hansson (4:20.17) and John Klecker (4:20.69) placed third and fourth, respectively.
 
Kyle Blakeslee hung with the lead pack in the women's mile, but UMD's Samantha Rivard broke away from the pack to take the title. Blakeslee clocked a provisional qualifying time of 5:02.99 in third and Kaitlyn Yoerg finished sixth in 5:07.82.
 
Continuing to shave seconds off his provisional qualifying time in the 60-meter hurdles, Ryan Heuer took third in the event with a personal-best 8.28-second run. Brandon Gildemaster also hit a PR, taking fifth in 8.42 seconds and Zach Jones placed eighth with an 8.77-second time.
 
CJ Ham notched another top-four finish in the throwing events, adding a fourth-place mark in the men's weight throw to his runner-up finish in the shot put. Ham's best toss landed 17.88 meters (58 feet, 8 inches) from the circle, a provisional mark.
 
Augustana looked to score big in the women's 5,000-meter run and they did so by placing three runners in the top seven. Kristin Brondbo hung with the lead pack, but UMD's Rivard broke away with a two laps remaining and Brondbo collected a third-place finish (17:21.71), edged by another UMD runner. Blakeslee finished one spot later in 17:37.55 and Meritxell Delgado finished seventh with a time of 17:45.76.
 
The men's team entered five runners in the 5k and all of them placed in the top nine. Keegan Carda (14:59.73), TJ Gleason (15:03.34), and John Klecker (15:10.76) finished 4-5-6 and Nathan Hauge clocked the eight-fastest time, edging teammate Adam Braun by five hundredths of a second, at 15:12.74.

The men's and women's 4x400-meter relay teams each turned in top five performances with the men placing second with a season-best time. Skyler Kuil, Jeremy Botzet, Zach Jones, and Omot teamed up for a 3:22.12 finishing behind only MSU Moorhead. The women's quarter of Mescher, Carina Hofmeister, Charissa Etrheim, and Colleen Everson took fifth in a loaded field with a time of 3:57.54.
 
Augustana added a pair of sixth-place finishes in the men's and women's 400-meter dash. Kuil clocked a 50.71 in the men's race while Hofmeister ran a personal-best with a 58.19-second time.
 
Anne Parlsey added on a third consecutive sixth-place finish for the Vikings. The junior ran her three laps in 1:37.42, narrowly missing a personal best.
 
Justin Greenway turned in a fourth-place finish in the men's 200-meter dash, circling the small oval in 22.76 seconds. Justin's brother Jason Greenway qualified in the men's 60-meter dash yesterday and placed seventh (7.24 seconds) in today's final.
 
The Vikings now turn to the NCAA leaderboard to see who earned fast-enough or far-enough marks to warrant an invitation to the NCAA Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C. on March 14 and 15. The Vikings added three new marks at the NSIC Championships to bring their season total to 22.