WAVERLY, Iowa – Junior
Demetri Lord improved his chances of qualifying for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships by placing second in the heptathlon, as members of the St. Olaf College men's and women's track and field teams competed at the Wartburg Qualifier on Friday and Saturday at Hoover Fieldhouse.
Lord was the runner-up in the heptathlon with a personal-best score of 4,784 points, which moved him up the national leaderboard from No. 22 to No. 16, barring results at other last-chance meets across the country. The top-20 declared competitors in each event earn spots at next week's national meet.
Senior
Lucas Kramarczuk posted the meet's top mark in the triple jump at 14.07 meters (46' 2") but was unable to improve on his mark of 14.37 meters (47' 1 ¾") from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Indoor Track & Field Championships after entering this weekend at No. 22 nationally in the event. Kramarczuk is already safely qualified for the national meet in the 60-meter hurdles.
Lord improved his previous high heptathlon score by 100 points, finishing 17 points behind Shea Wissler of UC Santa Cruz while bettering his second-best standing in program history in the event. The junior took the lead after Friday's four events with 2,704 points, highlighted by a first-place finish in the 60-meter dash with a PR of 7.13 seconds, which moved him up one spot to fourth on St. Olaf's all-time list. Lord added a win in the 60-meter hurdles on Saturday in 8.71 seconds, edging Wissler by two one-thousandths of a second, before adding a nearly-five-second PR in the 1,000-meter run (2:51.82) to close out the seven-event competition.
Sophomore
Cade Feist posted a fifth-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 15.21 meters (49' 11"), which fell shy of his winning mark of 15.63 meters (51' 3 ½") from the indoor conference meet.
On the women's side, senior
Annika Muller fouled on each of her three attempts in the triple jump, while three Oles competed in the pentathlon. Senior
Rebekah Salfer was fourth in the pentathlon before being unable to finish the 800-meter run and ending up eighth (2,446). Sophomore
Lily Johnson was sixth (2,569) – highlighted by a PR of 10.18 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles – while first year
Claire Keech took seventh (2,463) with PRs in the shot put (9.93m, 32' 7"), long jump (4.87m, 15' 11 4/5"), and 800-meter run (2:50.79).
The qualifiers for the NCAA Championships will be announced by press release on NCAA.com by 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 5. This year's championships take place March 10-11 at Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala.
