On Saturday, Feb. 4, the Southwestern Spartans track and field teams traveled to the 2017 Grinnell College Indoor Invitational hosted by Grinnell College in Grinnell. The Spartans made their presence known early in the meet when Ohio-native Ronald Henderson, freshman, took first place in the high jump.  Henderson set a new meet record jumping 2.06 meters (6 feet 9 inches).  The previous record of 2.00 meters was set in 2015.  Henderson improved his national ranking as he prepares to represent the Southwestern Spartans in Pittsburg, KS, at Pittsburg State University on Saturday, March 4.

Sisillia Seavula, sophomore of Suva City, Figi, has shown no sign of slowing down as she added to her impressive season on Saturday.  Seavula earned first and second place finishes in the 60 and 200-meter dashes respectively.  She improved her 200 meter dash time from 26.64 seconds to 26.27 seconds, which broke the Fiji national record for the indoor 200-meter dash.

Multiple Southwestern school records were broken at the meet.  Henderson set a new record in the men's high jump. Kevin Dietrich, Jalen Two Leggins, Caleb Peterson, and Gabe Esser set a new record in the 4,000-meter distance medley relay.  Dietrich then went on to set a new record in the 5,000-meter run.

In the overall team rankings, both the men and women finished 10th of 14 teams. The men totaled 32 points after 18 scored events.  The women scored 18 total points.

"This was definitely our best performance as a team. We were just out there having a lot of fun representing Southwestern and cheering each other on," recounted Spartan Interim Head Coach Jordan Strofaci. "We are beginning to reap the benefits of all our training, and we are in a great position to peak for the regional meet."

The Spartans' next competition is Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10 and 11 at the South Dakota State University Open in Brookings, SD.