Monmouth Men's Track and Field Wins 21st Straight MWC Title

Monmouth, IL (03/01/2020) — Monmouth's men ran their Midwest Conference indoor track and field team championship streak to 21, taking the team title and winning seven events over the two-day meet held in Grinnell, Iowa. The Scots women were runners up, winning two field event crowns.

Coach Roger Haynes was named the Men's Coach of the Year and Joe Krall the Men's Outstanding Field Athlete as Monmouth and St. Norbert battled for the men's and women's team crowns. The Scots' men outdistanced runner up St. Norbert 188.5-146 after holding just a two-point lead at the end of Friday's competition. The teams traded places in the women's competition with Monmouth's women placing second, 59.5 points behind league the champion Green Knights.

Krall took the top honor in the weight throw for the Scots' seventh straight title in the event. The senior landed the implement a Monmouth honor roll 63'11-1/2", winning the event by more than 4' over teammate Drew Thaxton who recorded a personal-best throw of 59'2-3/4". Andy Bird added fourth-place points with a mark of 51'0-1/4". On Friday, the threesome ruled the shot put where Thaxton won the event by more than 5', equaling his lifetime-best set last week with a heave of 53'4-1/4". Bird's 47'5-3/4" placed him third, just ahead of Joe Krall - last year's title holder - who threw the shot this year 46'10-1/4".

Two men's relays turned in league titles. In the meet-ending race, Stone Darrow, Alex Cutright, Reed Bona and Zach Vancil passed the baton in 3:26.27 to win the 4x400 relay by just under three seconds. The win followed Darrow, Vancil, Darius Williams and Lucas Sondgeroth's successful defense on Friday of the Scots' 4x200 relay crown, breaking the tape in 1:30.61.

Vancil claimed an individual title on Day 2. The junior won the 400-meter dash by more than a second in 50.22. Cutright was fifth in the race with a 51.68.

The Scots' other four league crowns came in the field events where sophomore Kareema Lawal earned her first league title, throwing a personal-best to take the shot put by just over 3" on Friday. Lawal landed the shot 42'4-1/4" to claim the women's only title on Day 1, the first Monmouth title in the women's shot since 2014. Leigha Sebben added points in the event, placing fifth with a mark of 40'10-1/4".

Aleeka Gentzler, Austin Pfau and Williams took top honors in a trio of jumping events. Gentzler successfully defended her high jump title, clearing 5'2-1/4". Josie Welker cleared 4'10-1/4" to tie for fifth. Pfau landed a personal-best, just inches shy of the school-record in the triple jump where he landed 47'0-1/4", more than 2' further than the runner up. Clayton Schulenberg took fifth at 43'10-1/2". Williams took the long jump crown, leaping a personal-best 23'1-1/4", making it the third straight year a Scot has won the event. Pfau placed fifth at 21'6-3/4".

The Scots turned in PRs and a record in the sprints.

Cindy Ladner clocked a school-record 60 dash time of 7.83 in Friday's prelims and equaled that time in Saturday's finals to finish third. Kenzie Baker clocked a PR in the prelims with an 8.02 and bettered it with a 7.94 in the finals for a fourth-place finish. Baker also placed third in the 200, clocking a PR of 26.10.

Monmouth's men placed three in Saturday's 60-meter finals and bunched their points in the 200.

Defending champion Stone Darrow clocked the prelims' top time with a Monmouth honor roll time of 6.95, the only sub-7.00 time on Day 1. Lucas Sondgeroth advanced with a 7.10 for the fourth seed and Seby Wolf entered Saturday's finals with the seventh-fastest time of 7.22. Darrow improved his time in the finals, clocking a personal-best 6.90 as the runner up, a mere one, one-hundredth out of first. Sondgeroth was fourth in 7.16 and Wolf sixth with a 7.18.

Darrow, Williams and Bona finished 3-4-5 in Saturday's 200-meter dash. Darrow's 22.43 was just 29- hundredths out of first. Williams posted a 22.84 and Bona a 22.97.

Cutright and Vanessa Caldwell reached the podium in the 60-meter hurdles. Cutright took second in the men's race, clocking an 8.50 in the finals, improving on his 8.58 in Friday's prelims. Caldwell's 9.35 finals time placed her third after running a Scots' honor roll time of 9.23 in Friday's prelims.

A pair of Monmouth relays ran to runner up finishes.

Ladner, Caldwell, Arika Hofmann and Jordan Peckham finished the women's meet with a second-place finish in the 4x400 where they ran a 4:05.74, less than a second off the pace. Peckham had placed third in the open 400, clocking a 1:00.15. Tanner Heiple, Josh Gross, Gavin Conway and Griff Morrill ran the distance medley relay in 10:45.72, seven seconds back of the winner.

A personal-best gave Riley Dulin a fourth-place finish in Saturday's 3,000. The sophomore improved his time with an 8:55.20, 12 seconds behind the winner.

Women's milers Hofmann and Mik Moore were 4-5 in Friday's event. Hofmann clocked a 5:22.93 while Moore finished in 5:24.47.

The Scots also turned in lifetime-bests in more field events and took podium honors.

Ladner took a runner up finish in the long jump, equaling her personal-best with a leap of 17'11-3/4". The mark was 1" ahead of the third-place finisher.

Men's pole vaulter Reed Wilson cleared a personal-best 15'5" to place second in the men's event, 6" shy of the winning height. Katie Hayes placed fourth in the women's vault after reaching 10'1-1/4".

Hannah McVey and Sebben added to Monmouth's points in the weight throw where they were second and fourth. McVey heaved the weight 50'7-1/2" and Sebben landed her throw 48'10-1/4".

Monmouth, which has numerous contenders for the NCAA Championships, will travel to a pair of last chance qualifiers March 6 and 7.