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The Southwestern track and field team took advantage of the best weather of the season this weekend, highlighted by a school record and a national qualifier.
Jedd Weinkoetz of Panora capped off a big week with a school-record throw in the javelin at Friday’s Jim Duncan Invitational hosted by Drake University.
Weinkoetz, who committed to Division I Oral Roberts University earlier in the week, unleashed a throw of 49.31 meters (161 feet, 9 inches) on his first throw of finals. That proved to be Weinkoetz’s best throw of the competition, as he finished seventh in the field of mostly Division I throwers.
Weinkoetz broke Conrad Schroeder’s 2023 school record of 48.57 meters (159-4).
“I am so happy for Jedd - one, for making his decision and committing to throw for a Division I university next year, and two, for breaking the school record,” SWCC coach Scott Vicker said. “This is something Jedd has been working toward all year. His dedication to training finally paid off. Now, we can set our sights on the next goal, which is to qualify for nationals.”
Freshman Brandon Briley of Creston ran the best race of his collegiate career at Friday’s Jim Duncan Invitational, posting a time of 1:57.70 in the 800-meters. That took 4.21 seconds off his previous best collegiate time in the event and moves him into third on the program’s outdoor all-time performance list.
Freshman teammate Dillon Starlin of Creston took on the challenge of matching Briley’s performance at Saturday’s Dick Young Classic in Grinnell. Starlin ran a 5.67-second PR of 1:58.83 in the 800m, putting him at No. 6 on the program’s all-time performance list.
With those two big improvements from Briley and Starlin, along with Cam Swapsy’s 2:00.17 and Zach Roome’s 1:53.84 from earlier in the year, the Spartan quartet has composited a 4x800 time of 7:50.54 to qualify for the NJCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships May 15-17 in Hutchinson, Kansas. The qualifying standard for the 4x800 is 7:51.02.
“I can’t say enough about how well Brandon and Dillon ran this weekend,” Vicker said. “To take 4-plus and 5-plus seconds off an 800 PR is truly incredible. Those breakthroughs have been simmering for a long time, and we finally got the weather to cooperate to allow us to see the benefits of all our training. Getting that 4x800 qualified takes a lot of pressure off us, and now we can start to race a little more freely. I would expect that composite time to drop even lower with Cam moving back to the 800 this upcoming week.”
Swapsy put up a couple of big performances at Friday’s invitational. He started his day with a lifetime PR of 49.48 second in the 400m dash, placing fifth overall in the event. He doubled back later in the day to run another PR time of 22.41 seconds in the 200m dash. He now ranks seventh in program history in the 400m and eighth in the 200m.
The suprise of the weekend came from sophomore Peyton Embree, who competed for the first time ever in the javelin.
Embree finished second at Saturday’s Dick Young Classic with a best throw of 43.58 meters (143-0) into a massive headwind. That throw ranks Embree fourth in program history.
“We’ve been trying to talk Peyton into throwing javelin since last year, and we finally got him to give it a try,” Vicker said. “He’s only been practicing it for a couple of weeks. So for him to come out and throw 43.58 meters into a headwind his first time out in competition was really exciting for us. I think he has a lot of potential in the event here over the final few weeks of the season as he gets more time to practice and more competition reps.”
Sophomore Ross Stephens just missed a school record in the pole vault at Saturday’s Dick Young Classic. Stephens matched his PR vault of 2.95 meters and looked to have a clearance on his final attempt at 3.10 meters, but just clipped the bar with his lat as he turned and threw the pole away from the bar.
Freshman Zach Thornburg returned from a groin injury to run a PR time of 10.94 seconds in the 100m dash, which ranks as the seventh-best time in program history. Freshman Tucker Knox posted a PR throw of 11.42 meters in the shot put, which ranks sixth in program history. Cole McNemar threw a PR of 29.60 meters in the discus, which is eighth in program history.
For the Spartan women, Abbi Richter had a PR throw of 34.84 meters, which ranks third in program history.
“It had been a bit of a frustrating start to our outdoor season, just with the poor weather we keep getting on meet days,” Vicker said. “So it was a great morale boost for everyone to get two days of good weather to compete in. Even with the winds picking up quite a bit toward the end of the day Saturday, we were able to do some really nice things. Hopefully this momentum will carry over into the final few weeks of the season and we’ll continue to see a slew of PRs.”
The Spartans will return to action this weekend with a small group traveling to the Kansas Relays Thursday through Saturday. The following week will include the Kip Janvrin Open at Simpson College April 24-25 and the Drake Relays April 25-26.