Men and women take second at Spartan Invitational
DUBUQUE, Iowa - The Simpson men's and women's track and field teams captured 11 combined first-place finishes and both teams placed second at the University of Dubuque Spartan Invitational Saturday at A.Y. McDonald Indoor Track.
The meet featured Iowa Conference foe Dubuque, UW-Platteville, Clarke and North Iowa Area Community College. UW-Platteville's women scored 175 points, edging Simpson's 154. Clarke (66), Dubuque (62) and NIACC (42) followed. UWP triumphed on the men's side as well, racking up 248 points. Simpson took second (127), followed by NIACC (50), Dubuque (46) and Clarke (38).
"We showed good improvement from our first meet of the season two weeks ago," head coach Dave Cleveland said. "We are still moving some people around and trying some different combinations, but I'm happy with where we're at at this point."
On the women's side, All-American hurdler Lauren Bucklin (Bondurant, Iowa/Bondurant-Farrar) reached an NCAA provisional mark in 55-meter hurdles, winning the event in 8.36 seconds. Bucklin also paced the field in the 600-meters (1:43.95).
A national qualifier in the mile a year ago, Catie Ellingson (Indianola, Iowa/Indianola) bested the pack on Saturday with a time of 5:08.86. Sarah Hammel (Dorchester, Iowa/Waukon) led the field in the 800-meters (2:19.78) and Jess Christensen (Harlan, Iowa/Harlan) won the 3,000-meters (10:33.98).
Simpson took second in both relay events. The combination of Jordan Maher (Baxter, Iowa/Baxter), Kinsey Bak (Hinton, Iowa/Hinton), April Sigmund (Jewell, Iowa/South Hamilton) and Lauren Anderson (Oakland, Iowa/Riverside) placed second in the 4x200-meter relay (1:53.52) and Molly Sabers (Iowa City, Iowa/City), Bucklin, Alyssa Hedrick (Council Bluffs, Iowa/Jefferson) and Ellingson came in second in the 4x400-meters (4:07.70).
In the field events, Bak placed second in the high jump (5-3 3/4) and long jump (15-11).
In men's individual running events, Kyle Yarkosky (Albia, Iowa/Albia) and Casey Dunning (Marion, Iowa/Linn-Mar) earned first-place finishes for the Storm. Yarkosky crossed the finish line just ahead of teammate Brandon Christensen (Clive, Iowa/West Des Moines Valley) in the 600-meters, finishing in 1:24.54 to Christensen's 1:25.56. In the 3,000-meters, Dunning edged out UW-Platteville's Kyle Klein by 0.53 seconds (9:17.20).
Marty Rounds (Council Bluffs, Iowa/Jefferson) won the 55-meter hurdles (8.05) and led off Simpson's winning 4x400-meter relay team. Rounds, Christensen, Legrand Bien-Aime (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./Stranahan) and Yarkosky won the event with a time of 3:29.62.
For the second meet in a row, Wardell Watkins (Olathe, Kan./Northwest) notched an easy victory in the long jump. His leap of 21-9 was nearly a foot further than the second-place finisher.
Throwers John Wardenburg (Williamsburg, Iowa/Williamsburg) and Scott Danielson (Dayton, Iowa/SE Webster Grand) finished first and second, respectively, in the shot put. Wardenburg's heave of 48-8 1/4 beat out Danielson's best of 48-0.
Simpson returns to action Saturday, Feb. 6 when it travels to Mt. Vernon for the Cornell Hilltop Invitational.
