Sprinters lead tracksters at Mac Open

McPherson College’s Geralyn Hale won the women’s 100 meters, while Seth Cavenee won the men’s 100m, Preston Taylor came home first in the 200m.  Cavenee and Taylor then combined to form half of the Bulldogs’ winning 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay teams at Saturday’s McPherson College Open.

Cool and windy, but sunny conditions greeting participants for the initial meet on the renovated McPherson Stadium facilities.  “Everyone raved about our facilities, and the automatic timing system worked like a charm,” said McPherson head coach Bart Gray.  “This was a good meet for us.  To host a home meet always means something special for our kids.  We want our athletes to feel like when we host a meet, the facilities and the way the meet is conducted will be special.  I believe we accomplished that today.”

Field events opened the meet at 10:30 a.m.  Top finishers for the Bulldogs in the field events were Brandt Busse with a second in javelin with a throw of 168-5, off a five-step approach, Tim Cox, tying for third in the high jump (6-4), and Eddie Chavez and Dan Hudachek placing fourth in the shot put and discus, respectively.

Hudachek also placed sixth and Busse seventh in the hammer throw. 

For the Lady Bulldogs, Kelsey Hendricks led the way with a fifth place finish in the shot put (34-2.5).

“Our throwers are starting to come along.  We felt once we got outdoors, our throwers could be one of our strong areas.   They’re young, developing, but I think we have some real potential.”

On the track, Seth Cavenee notched a provisional national qualifying mark in the qualifying heats of the 100 meters, when he rode the north winds to a 10.90 timing.  Cavenee next anchored the Bulldogs’ winning 4 x 100 meters relay to a 43.03 win.  That relay was highlighted by Preston Taylor’s great third leg.  Kris Smiley and America Patton ran the opening two legs of the winning combination.

In the 400 meters, Taylor ran an outdoor season best 50.50 to finish second.  By the time the 200 meters was run in mid-afternoon, the winds had slowed somewhat, and Taylor and Cavenee sprinted to a 1-3 finish.  They rounded out their afternoon by combining with Troy Hernandez and Tim Cox to win the day’s final event, the 4 x 400 relay, in 3:35.30.

Cox and Hernandez had earlier finished third and sixth, respectively, in the 800 meters.  Bryan Grosbach placed fourth and fifth in a 5k-10k distance double.

In addition to her 100 win, Hale ran well in placing fourth in the 200 meters.  Mandi Shobe had the Lady Bulldogs best distance finish as she placed sixth in 5,000 meters while Deidre Frager and Bethany Lobmeyer were seventh in the 800 and 5,000, respectively.

“I felt we performed well as a team today.  We had a lot of positive things today.  Our folks are seeing improvement, and at this point, that’s what we’re after.”

Mc PHERSON COLLEGE OPEN