Because of the national junior college indoor meet being held this week, it was a little smaller than opening meets of the past, but a couple of NCAA Division 11 schools in attendance made up for the quantity with quality.
The SWC men’s team won eight events and picked up a whole lot of place winners while turning in some excellent opening performances.
"This was a little smaller meet than what we have had in the past for a couple reasons." Coach Jim Helmer said. "The main reason of course is the national indoor juco championships this weekend and we have teams which usually come here involved in that."
"Cloud County for instance has never missed this meet, but they are competing in the national and couldn’t come."
"But that’s ok, because this time of year with the uncertainty of the weather sometimes this meet has been too big for an opening meet. Some events today were really quality and fairly deep and some were not really good in quality and depth."
"As far as the men’s performances, I was pleased overall with the results. I thought our middle distance runners did a nice job and was pleasantly surprised at how fast our sprinters and hurdlers ran. To run a 41.8 in the 4 x 100 in this temperature with two blotched handoffs is incredible. That is going to be an exciting group."
"Also I want to mention we had some veterans that have started out right where I hoped they would and are going to carry the load. I was pleased with a number of our new people, Seth Manske, James Titus, Chris Woods, Trey Jones and Brock Brown are guys we are going to be able to count on for a big contribution in addition to our experienced runners.."
Titus, just two weeks off being named the "Freshman of the Year" in the KCAC basketball league and two days into track practice won two events for the Builders.
One of them he wasn’t even entered in until just before the meet.
The freshman took the men’s long jump with a leap of 21-9, then came back to win the triple jump at 44-9. Both very respectable jumps for two days of practice which probably did not include a lot of work on getting his step down.
As they have for years, the Builders scored a ton in the distance events, sweeping the top four places in the 5,000 and 1,500, the top three spots in the 800, the top two places in the 10,000, and three of the top four steeplechase spots.
Jonathan Conard won the 10,000, Chris Knapp the 1,500, Cory Helmer the 800, Greg Bomhoff the 5,000 and Eric Hunt the steeplechase. All are veterans.
Newcomer Woods won the short hurdles, finishing in 15.0, Jones took the high jump, Brown picked up a third in the discus and Manske got a fifth place out of the javelin.
The Builders scoring in the throws, has been a rare thing in the past. Thursday, in addition to the above, Josh Browne and Kris Green picked up places in the hammer throw. Heath Laetari got points in the shot, and Justin Hurley picked up additional discus placement.
There were no team scores kept.
Individual Events.
Men’s Long Jump
1. James Titus Southwestern 21-09
2. Jonathan Lemuel, Southwestern 20.01.75
3. Josh Schrag Tabor 19-11.5
4. Jason Castro Sterling 18-06.0
5. Marc Penner Tabor 18-03.5
Men’s High Jump
1. Trey Jones Southwestern 6-3
2. NH
Men’s Hammer Throw
1. Tony Caruso Bethany 139-3
2. Brian Mantooth PSU 135-11
3. Scott Cunningham Bethany 135-01
4. Josh Browne Southwestern 126-00
5. Ji Hornung Bethany 125-02
6. Kris Green Southwestern 122-10
Men’s Pole Vault
1. Justus Ball PSU 14-0
2. Nik Kassler PSU 12-0
3. Chuck Pasons Tabor 11-0
4. Robert James Pratt 10-06
Men’s 10,000
1. Jonathan Conard SC 33:45.6
2. Josh Wheatley SC 34:10.1
Men’s 4 x 100
1. PSU 41.3
2. SWC 41.8
3. Sterling 45.2
Men’s Triple Jump
1. James Titus SC 44-9
2. Kevin Lee Bethel 44-0
3. Robert Alvarez Bethel 42-3.75
4. Marc Penner Tabor 39-3.5
5. Alex Vimont Sterling 37-04.
Men’s Steeplechase
1. Eric Hunt SC 9:46.6
2. Jordan Hale PSU 10:02.9
3. Greg Bomhoff SC 10:51.5
4. Adam Wright SC 11:08.0
5. Ben Bricker Tabor 11:22.4
Men’s 1,500
1. Chris Knapp SC 4:05.1
2. Chris Ford SC 4:13.9
3. Trent Hanshew SC 4:14.2
4. John Cunningham SC 4:16.6
5. Shane Buterfield Sterling 4:33.3
6. Craig Balzer Tabor 4:35.3
Men’s Javelin
1. Sean Simoneau PSU 201.0
2. Trent Giffin PSU 174.04
3. Nathan Smith Sterling 171.07
4. Matt Rennick Bethany 168.11
5. Seth Manske SC 158-05
6. John Lehmann Sterling 157-06
Men’s 110 Meters
1. Chris Woods SC 15.0
2. Trent Griffin PSU 15.7
3. Matt Lichlyter SC 15.9
4. Chris Baker PSU 16.6
5. Damien Passalacqua PSU 16.8
6. Robert James Pratt 17.0
Men’s shot
1. Matt Rennick Bethany 47.09.5
2. Matt Lee Pratt 42.11.5
3. Jake Nossaman Sterling 42.11.5
4. Heath Laetari Southwestern 41.03.
5. Mike Bortoletto Bethel 41.02.5
6. Chris Oullette Bethany 40.10.75
Men’ s 400 Meters
1. Steven Stucky PSU 49.4
2. Curt Guhr Bethel 50.7
3. Mike Davidson PSU 52.5
4. Chris Champion SC 52.8
5. Justin Rankin SC 53.3
6. Montele Knauls SC 53.6
Men’s 100
1. Doug Hix PSU 10.4
2. Justin Cocoran SC 10.5
3. Calvin Burks SC 10.6
4. Ken Goard SC 10.8
5. Willie Woods Sterling 10.8
6. Robert Smith Tabor 11.1
Men’s 800 Meters
1. Cory Helmer SC 1:56.9
Ryan Turner UNA 1:58.5
2. Chris Knapp SC 2:01.1
3. Eric Hunt SC 2:03.4
4. Craig Balzer Tabor 2:06.4
5. Trent Hanshew SC 2:08.3
6. Alex Vimont Sterling 2:16.6
6. Jarvis Wiph Tabor 2:16.6
Men’s 400 Hurdles
1. Trent Giffin PSU 57.4
2. Chris Baker PSU 57.5
3. Chris Woods SC 58.9
4. Curtis Potucek SC 60.8
5. Randall Schaller SC 61.8
Men’s 200 Meters
1. Steven Stucky PSU 21.8
2. Justin Corcoran SC 22.0
3. Calvin Burks SC 22.3
4. Ken Goard SC 22.3
5. Keldric Horne SC 22.3
6. Robert Smith Tabor 23.1
Men’s 5,000 Meters
1. Greg Bomhoff SC 16:22.6
2. Jon Cunningham SC 16.32.9
3. Adam Wright SC 16:58.2
4. Brett Prothro SC 17:42.6
5. Logan Duerksen Tabor 18:11.7
6. Ben Bricker Tabor 18:56.0.
Men’s 4 x 400 relay
1. PSU 3:27.0
2. SWC 3:31.3
3. SWC-B 3:37.7
4. Sterling 3:38.6
5. Tabor 3:44.1
Men’s Discus
1. Dusty Robinson Sterling 140-11
2. Jason Gallagher Bethel 139-05
3. Brock Brown SC 129-07
4. Eric Varnon Sterling 128-10
5. Ji Hornung Bethany 127-09
6. Justin Hurley SC 125-04.