COUNCIL BLUFFS - Three more Southwestern track & field athletes hit automatic-qualifying marks over the weekend at the Region 11 Championships hosted by Iowa Western Community College.
Jonathon Hackett in the decathlon, Brianna Osterson in the javelin, and Robert Norton in the 400 hurdles all qualified for next weekend's NJCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Hobbs, New Mexico, bringing Southwestern's total to seven events qualifying for the championships. Previously qualifying for the national championships were Chase Oates in the 1,500 meters and Molly Venteicher in the shot put, hammer throw, and javelin.
"For us to get seven events qualifying to nationals is a huge deal for our program," said Scott Vicker, director of cross country/track & field. "Each of my first two years as head coach, we had just one qualifier in each year to both the indoor and outdoor national championships. This year, we bumped up to three during indoors and now have seven outdoors. That is huge growth for our program. Our kids carry a chip on their shoulders because we're an underdog against a lot of the schools we compete against, so they were determined show what can be achieved here at Southwestern."
Hackett got things started for the Spartans by competing in the decathlon on Friday and Saturday. It was Hackett's only chance at a decathlon all season, and he took full advantage of the opportunity. His total of 5,366 points ranks him 14th in the country, securing a top-16 qualifying spot. Hackett posted PRs in the shot put, high jump, 110 hurdles, and pole vault, while just missing PRs in the 100 meter dash, long jump, and discus. Going into the final event of the decathlon, the 1,500 meters, Hackett knew he needed to run a fast time to secure his spot at nationals. He won the decathlon 1,500 meters in a time of 4:47.97 for 631 points to vault from third place overall to second place.
"This was Hackett's first time ever doing a decathlon, and he performed outstanding. As a distance guy myself, I'm incredibly proud of how he finished things off in that 1,500," Vicker said. "He trusted my race plan for him, and executed it to perfection. We know there are still more points out there that he can get, so we will work on cleaning things up over the next week and a half before nationals."
Osterson capped off Friday evening with an exclamation mark as she shattered her personal best in the javelin to qualify for nationals. Osterson was in fourth place going into finals of the event, and on her fifth throw of the competition put up a mark of 36.78 meters to move into second place and surpass both the national-qualifying standard of 36.22 meters and teammate Venteicher's school record of 36.47 meters.
Osterson, who was the final thrower in the order, then finished the competition with another improvement to 37.13 meters (121 feet, 10 inches) that sent her jumping into the air with joy. Venteicher finished third in the competition at 36.25 meters (118-11) to give the Spartans two of the three all-region performers in the event. Osterson's mark was 2.88 meters better than her PR entering the day.
"I'm so proud of Bri. She has worked so hard to work her way back from her torn ACL in the fall just to compete, and she has now thrown almost 6 meters farther than she did prior to her knee surgery. I know she wanted to earn her own way to national and not have to get white-carded in, so it was a very exciting day for her," Vicker said. "I actually had a dream a few days prior to the competition that she threw 37 meters. She thought I was crazy when I told her about it, but I guess my dream was trying to tell me something!"
As big as Osterson's PR was, it was Norton who had the most dramatic improvement to qualify for nationals.
Norton entered the day with a 400 hurdles PR of 57.51, which was 2.31 seconds short of the national qualifying mark of 55.20. The sophomore from Trophy Club, Texas, ran great through the first four hurdles before nearly derailing his qualifying hopes at the fifth hurdle as he stuttered his steps and lost all of his momentum. But, he quickly recovered and blitzed the final blazed his way through the final three hurdles down the homestretch to overtake Hawkeye CC's Kenny Cutler and post a heat win by 2 full seconds with a new school-record time of 54.52. Teammate Alex Bates also ran a 1-second PR in the race to move into fourth all-time in program history with his time of 57.38 seconds, despite hitting two hurdles and coming up with his non-dominant leg at six hurdles.
"People probably thought I was crazy when I kept talking about how I thought Robert would qualify even though he was over 2 seconds away from the mark after last week," Vicker said. "But we spent all week working on him gaining confidence in his non-dominant let, and working on his rhythm between hurdles. The amount of improvement in his hurdling skills over just one week was out of this world. He's only been hurdling in total for five weeks, so he's come a long way in a short amount of time. And, he's won his heat each of the past two weeks by 2 seconds, so if we get him in a heat where he's pushed hard from the gun to the tape, who knows what his ceiling is."
Sophomore Conrad Schroeder improved his school record in the men's hammer throw with his mark of 36.10 meters (118-5). Freshman Chase Oates finished third in the 3,000 steeplechase to earn all-region honors. Hackett just missed all-region honors in the pole vault, as he put up a PR for the second straight day to improve his school record in the event. Hackett cleared 3.05 meters (10-0).
For the Spartan women, sophomore Grace Massier took on the heptathlon for the first time in her career and scored 3,074 points with PRs in six of the seven events - 100 hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, javelin, and the 800. After two grueling days of competition in the heptathlon, she qualified for finals of the 200 meter dash on Saturday night. On Sunday, she came back to run a PR in the 400 meter dash of 1:02.80 for seventh place, and then ran another big PR in the 200 meter dash of 27.13 to finish sixth.
"Grace came to us at the end of indoor season and asked if she could try the heptathlon outdoors," Vicker said. "We had to teach her six brand new events in a hurry to make that happen. She was a real trooper about it and never got frustrated. She had a fantastic weekend with doing so well in the heptathlon and then running two more PRs after that. I couldn't be more proud of how well she did this weekend."
For the second straight year at the Region 11 Championships, Venteicher scored points in all four throwing events. She finished third in the javelin, fourth in the hammer throw, fifth in the shot put, and sixth in the discus.
The Spartans will compete at the NJCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships May 18-20 at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, New Mexico.
"The best part of this trip to Hobbs is the journey it took to get here," Vicker said. "Each one of these qualifiers has developed into what they are now. Molly was a great shot putter in high school, but she has picked up these new events and made such great progress in them with the help of Coach (Mark) Evans. Bri came in as a long jumper and sprinter, and even after tearing her ACL and meniscus, has turned into one of the top javelin throwers in the country. Chase was running 4:44 in the 1,600 as a high school senior and has worked his tail off to run the equivalent of a 4:19 mile in the 1,500 meters. Robert has been on the verge of qualifying for nationals in several events over his two-year career here at SWCC. He just picked up the hurdles five weeks ago and now is a national qualifier. For each of these kids, it's a testament to how much they've bought into the vision Coach Evans and I have for them, as well as buying into the training. They have all earned this opportunity."
