DES MOINES - The Southwestern track & field team started its outdoor season with a bang Saturday, breaking five school records on the day.
Abu Kemokai highlighted the record-breaking performances. The freshman from Des Moines flourished in his hometown, adding more than a meter to his previous triple jump PR to place second in the event with his mark of 12.85 meters. Kemokai, whose best mark during the indoor season was 11.73 meters, eclipsed the 12-meter mark on all three of his prelim jumps Saturday. His leap of 12.85 meters (42 feet, 2 inches) bested the previous school record of 12.80 meters, set in 2015 by Parrish McGee.
"Abu has put a lot of time in working on his triple jump, so I'm thrilled for him that he broke the school record," said Scott Vicker, director of cross country/track & field. "Seeing the smile on his face when I told him he broke the school record made my day. He deserves it with all of his hard work."
Sophomore Conrad Schroeder put up the first school record of the day for the Spartans, finally breaking through to claim the javelin record. Schroeder was close all last year as a freshman, and finally broke Chris Krystofiak's 2018 record of 45.78 with his final throw of the competition. Schroeder finished third in the event with his throw of 45.99 meters (150 feet, 11 inches), which currently ranks seventh in the NJCAA. Teammate Jonathon Hackett finished seventh in the event with a throw of 37.81 meters.
Hackett later claimed a school record of his own, with a PR vault of 2.75 meters (9 feet, 0.25 inches). That bested Krystofiak's 2018 school record of 2.65 meters.
"Conrad has been chasing that javelin record since our first outdoor meet last year, when he came up just short of it," Vicker said. "I'm glad he finally got that weight of his shoulders, and I'm excited to see how he can continue to progress throughout the season. Hackett's record was a big PR for him, as his best clearance during indoor season was 2.50 meters. He just keeps getting better each time he gets to vault."
Sophomore Molly Venteicher rebroke two of her own school records Saturday, posting PRs in the hammer throw and the javelin. Venteicher added 2.21 meters to her school record in the hammer throw with her mark of 37.85 meters (124 feet, 2 inches), and improved her javelin record to 34.12 meters. She finished second overall in the women's javelin competition, leading a strong contingent of Spartan throwers. Bri Osterson, in her first competition since suffering a torn ACL at the beginning of volleyball season, finished third at 28.88 meters, Samira Baade placed fifth at 25.47 meters, Malori Leonard sixth at 25.04 meters, and Meredith Gettings 13th at 19.41 meters.
The Spartan men picked up four event victories, making it a clean sweep in the short sprint events. Sophomore Justin Cunningham cruised to the victory in the 100 meter dash, running 10.67 seconds - the second-best time of his career - to win by .23 seconds. He came back to win the 200 meter dash in a new PR of 22.03 seconds in a close battle with Verlyn Johnson of Culver-Stockton, who ran 22.06 seconds. Cunningham started his day by anchoring the Spartan 4x100 relay team to the win in 42.44 seconds - the fastest time for a Spartan 4x100 relay team since the school record set in 2015. Other members of the 4x100 relay were Cyrus Hancock, Robert Norton, and Ben Olson.
Olson picked up the win in the men's long jump with a new PR leap of 6.75 meters. Norton took second place in the men's 400 meter dash. The Southwestern 4x400 relay team of Olson, Chase Oates, Hackett, and Norton finished second to host Grand View in a close battle down the homestretch. Norton battled from behind to nearly complete the comeback for the Spartans, who ran 3:27.34 to Grand View's 3:26.96.
"Our men's sprints and jumps really showed up on Saturday," Vicker said. "We have a lot of talent in those groups, so it's great to see them start the outdoor season with some strong performances for us to build off of."
Oates posted the No. 2 time in program history for the 1,500 meters in his first time ever racing the distance. Oates ran 4:05.63, which puts him within range of the national qualifying mark of 4:02.10. The 4:05.63 conversion to a full mile would have been a 10-second mile PR for Oates.
"Chase is going to continue to lower that time as he continues to gain confidence in himself," Vicker said. "We've collected some great training data from him recently and are going to be making some training changes to help him continue to get better at the 1,500 race distance. I'm excited to see how low he can go this year."
Southwestern returns to action Friday at the Billiken Invite, hosted by Vicker's alma mater Saint Louis University.
