ST. PAUL, Minn. – Junior
Stephen Peper was the conference champion in the high jump as the St. Olaf College men's track and field team sits in second place after the opening day of the 2021 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships held on Friday at Hamline University's Klas Field.
Peper won the event and earned all-conference honors by clearing 2.07 meters (6' 9 ½") to finish two-and-a-half inches ahead of Jake Kelly of St. Thomas. Peper's jump is tied for third-best on St. Olaf's all-time list in the event and is tied for fifth in the country in NCAA Division III this season.
St. Olaf's 4x800-meter relay of
Sam Primozich,
Luke Malek,
Penn Sagedahl, and
Sam Stresemann ran to a third-place finish with a time of 7:54.96, finishing only behind St. Thomas and Carleton in the event.
Logan Bocovich posted the seventh-fastest time on St. Olaf's all-time list in the 10,000 meters on his way to a fourth-place finish in 31:10.16.
Peper also scored in the long jump, finishing fifth with a jump of 6.70 meters (21' 11 ¾"), which was just half an inch shy of his personal-best mark from this spring's Meet of the Saints.
The Oles got a pair of seventh-place finishes from
Lucas Kramarczuk and
Aengus White, with Kramarczuk's coming in the long jump (6.51m, 21' 4 ¼") and White's in the discus throw (40.76m, 133' 9").
St. Olaf also had numerous student-athletes qualify for finals after the prelims of a variety of track events, including five Oles in the 1,500 meters where
Reuben Kosche (4:01.18),
Sam Stresemann (4:00.79),
Eliott Cassidy (4:01.52),
Sam Primozich (4:01.06), and
Noah Massanari (1:01.15) all were in the top 12.
Kramarczuk placed third in the prelims of the 110-meter hurdles (14.89) to qualify for the finals on Saturday, as did
Demetri Lord who was eighth (15.79).
Also qualifying for the finals were
Duncan Forbes in the 400-meter dash (50.63) and
Jacob Colich in the 400-meter hurdles (57.51).
Day two of the 2021 MIAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships gets under way at 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 15.
