Griffin Track sets Seasonal and Personal Bests at DePauw Invitational
Greencastle, Ind. – Performances by Kelly Mundwiller and Olivia Beggs highlighted the day as the men's and women's track and field teams competed at the DePauw Indoor Invitational on Saturday. Mundwiller surpassed her previous personal best in the shot put by 29 centimeters, throwing 9.05 meters. Two of her three throws were over the nine meter mark and her performance earned her Griffin Athlete-of-the-Meet honors. Olivia Beggs also posted a new lifetime best and placed third in the 3,000-meter run, running 11:13.07. The performance was a five second improvement from her race two weeks ago.
On the distance side of things, three Griffins persevered through head colds to come away with seasonal bests. In the 800-meter run, Annie McKenzie ran 2:54.77 to clock a two second personal best in the second track meet of her career. Claire Becker gutted out 3,000-meters in 12:27.30, a thirteen-second improvement from two weeks prior. In the men's 3,000-meter run, Justin Horneker ran 9:28.86, the second fastest 3K time of his career. Coach Blake said, "I'm not a proponent of having people race when they are sick, but most of our team came down with a cold on Thursday, which meant I didn't find out until Friday afternoon. They seemed to be doing okay, but it was a bit of a gamble to have them race."
After a great week of practice, the sprints performances were on par with the past two meets. The young squad executed aspects of their races they have been diligently working on in practice. Clayton Bond, Gabi Cruts, and Taylor McGowen competed in the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.
A few Griffins will be doing tune up races at the Illinois College Alumni Classic this Friday, February 20th, before the whole team travels to the Anderson University Fred Wilt Invitational on Saturday, February 28th.