The Harper College men's track and field team had several point getters at a very competitive Benedictine University Relays and Invitational over the weekend. Additionally, several Hawks set personal bests and/or qualified for the national meet on a warm day.
The highest placing event for the Hawks was the 4x100m relay ran by Nancy Leinwander (Inverness, Ill./Fremd), Beth Petrunich (McHenry, Ill./McHenry East), Leah Kloss (Grayslake, Ill. /Grayslake Central), and Ashley Proksa (Palatine, Ill. /Palatine). The squad ran its best time of the season, 50.89 seconds, to earn third place and six points. Proksa and Kloss also both qualified for the finals in the 100-meter dash, and they finished fifth (12.85 seconds) and sixth place (12.93 seconds), respectively. Shayan Dussard (/Hoffman Estates) and Petrunich both ran personal bests in the 100m as well. Dussard clocked 12.90 seconds, and Petrunich clocked 13.80 seconds.
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Proksa, Kloss, and Dussard all earned points in the 200-meter dash. Proksa placed fifth in 26.26 seconds, and Kloss was eighth in 26.52 seconds. Dussard edged Kloss to claim seventh in 26.48 seconds. At 800 meters, Jacqueline Colon (Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove) ran the best race of her college career with a PR of 2:39.55 to qualify for nationals. In the 1500m, Gutt took eighth place out of 71 runners in a time of 4:54.76. Teammate
Veronica Brooks (Arlington Heights, Ill./Battle (Mo.)) met qualifying standard for nationals with a PR time of 5:22.51.
In the 4x400m relay, the team of Proksa, Petrunich, Dianne Barajas (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Schaumburg), and Gutt scored points with a seventh place finish in a PR time of 4:20.37.
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Damaris Fuentes (Elgin, Ill. /Larkin) and Leinwander performed admirably in the hurdles on Saturday. Fuentes had a NQ time of 18.05 seconds in the 100m hurdles, and her and Leinwander finished side by side in the 400m hurdles. Fuentes completed the race in 1:22.18, a quarter of a second ahead of Leinwander (1:22.43).
Head coach Renee Zellner got the most out of her throwers as well at the meet. In the hammer, Kloss place sixth with a throw of 42.21m (138'6"), her best throw of the season. Bobbie Buerer (Cary, Ill. /Cary-Grove) and Mary Saitta (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Hoffman Estates) both turned in efforts good enough to qualify for nationals. Buerer recorded a throw of 35.71m (117'2"), and Saitta recorded a throw of 27.69m (90'10"). Ashonte Sims(Bloomington, Ill. /Normal Community West) had her best throw of the season, 25.24m (82'10").
Here are the results from the other throwing events:
-Kloss set her best marks in both the shot put (10.05m, 32'11 ¾") and discus (27.40m, 89'11")
-Saitta PRed in the javelin (28.37m, 93'1", ninth place), shot put (10.42m, 34'2 ¼") and discus (28.48m, 93'5").
-Buerer PRed in the javelin (27.71m, 90'11", 10th place) and qualified for nationals.
-Sims set a PR in the shot put (8.92m, 29'3 ¼"), good enough to meet qualifying standards for the national meet.
-Leinwander's throw of 19.29m (63'3") in the discus was a personal-best and national-qualifying effort.
Collectively, the Hawks scored 26 points and placed 11th out of 18 teams. St. Francis University won the meet with 117 points. Runner-up St. Ambrose University tallied 85.4 points, followed by St. Norbert College with 66.7 points.
The team will look to continue building toward the NJCAA Division III National Championship in less than three weeks as they compete at the Concordia University Cougar Invitational on Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23.
*PR=personal record
*NQ=national-qualifying
