Bethel track and field records 14 top-eight finishes at Bethel Invite
Bethel track and field records 14 top-eight finishes at Bethel Invite
The Threshers first outdoor meet was led by Esau, Logue, Schmidt, Schrag, and Wise.
In their first outdoor meet of the season, the Bethel track and field team competed on Saturday in a home meet where they recorded 14 top-eight finishes along with multiple other personal records on the day.
“Overall I believe our team performed amazingly this weekend despite the challenging cold and windy conditions,” said Braden Esau from Hesston. “I’m confident that we’ll continue to progress and achieve even better times as the season unfolds.”
Esau was one of three Threshers to finish top-eight in the 800 meters, finishing 2nd with a time of 2:01.48. Luke Schmidt and Isaiah Bartel came closely after, finishing 5th and 8th respectively. On the women’s side, Mia Roman finished in 6th place with a time of 2:20.56.
The majority of Bethel’s top finishes on Saturday came in both field events and distance events, with only one sprinter placing on the weekend: Freshman Fabian Talavera in the 200 meters, with a time of 23.42.
Leading the way in field events was Myiah Logue, a returning all-conference long jumper and triple jumper for the Threshers. Logue finished 3rd in the triple jump and 5th in the long jump on the weekend, with jumps of 10.39 meters and 4.92 meters respectively. Logue, who missed nationals by four inches last year, is more motivated than ever and is looking to make a splash in the KCAC.
“I think that as a team we competed well,” said Logue from Moundridge. “It's always hard to compete when the weather isn't great, and windy. [For me] there is a lot of great jumpers in the KCAC this year so it'll be fun to use them as motivation and compete against them.”
Two other big contributors this weekend on the field side were Daniel Kaufman and Quian Henderson. Kaufman, one of the throwers for Bethel, recorded a throw of 50.70 meters in the javelin, which was good enough for him to take 5th place. Henderson, in his first meet for the Threshers, finished 4th in the high jump, clearing 1.87 meters.
The distance team also had a big weekend for Bethel, taking home 5 top-eight finishes between three athletes. Tobin Wise and Bethany Schrag each placed in both the 1500 and the 5000 meters. Wise recorded a 2nd place in the 1500 meters with a time of 4:10.24 and a 5th place finish in the 5000 meters running a 16:39.02 time. Schrag recorded a 7th place finish in the 1500 meters with a 5:18.22 time and a 3rd place in the 5000 meters with a 19:49.28. Marcus Fielder placed in the 5000 meters as well, just behind Wise at 16:45.54 to take 6th place.
Wise, a junior from Pleasant Hill, Mo., was proud of how the team competed and believes that the ceiling is very high for this team.
“Working together in practice and pushing each other there will help us to perform better in future races,” said Wise. “Bethel did well in this meet considering the small size of our team compared to some other schools. In future meets, I think we will continue to see many PRs across the board and hopefully some national qualifying marks.”
With this optimism in mind and a hope for warmer weather for their future meets, the Threshers next compete on Thursday in the Emporia State Relays.