Results

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Saint John's track and field is in second place out of 10 teams following the first full day of the 2023 MIAC Indoor Championships held Saturday, Feb. 25, at Macalester's Leonard Center.

Bethel leads the field with 81.5 points, followed closely by SJU (79.5) with St. Olaf (68) and Carleton (57) in third and fourth, respectively.

The Johnnies won one event and totaled seven All-MIAC (top three) performances, including three runner-up finishes, on the day.

The reigning MIAC Men's Field Athlete of the Week, sophomore Zach Schaffer (Chaska, Minn.) won the MIAC title in the long jump with a mark of 6.70 meters on his sixth and final attempt. The conference championship was SJU's first in the event since Erik Diley '09 in 2009. Sophomore Alec Ungar (Eden Prairie, Minn./Chanhassen) followed Schaffer in eighth (6.33 meters) and senior Brady Labine (Detroit Lakes, Minn.) took eighth in the 400-meter dash (50.48).

Three Johnnie seniors combined for 14 points in the weight throw. Jaeden Frost (Omro, Wis.) picked up his first All-MIAC honor with a second-place mark (16.31 meters), while Eli Mollet (Jefferson, S.D./Bishop Heelan, Iowa) and Brett Hague (Brainerd, Minn.) were fifth (15.00 meters) and seventh (14.67 meters), respectively. 

Senior Mitch Grand (Hutchinson, Minn.) also earned his first All-MIAC distinction with a second-place finish (4:15.43), 2.44 seconds from the title, in the mile run and junior Lloyd Young (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy) was three seconds behind in fifth (4:18.30).

Sophomore Max Lelwica (Brainerd, Minn.) earned All-MIAC honors with a second-place finish (4,333 points) in the two-day, 16-man heptathlon. He started the day in fifth place after the competition's first four events held yesterday and climbed into third with a second-place finish (8.95) in Saturday's first event, the 60-meter hurdles. Lelwica jumped into second place with a fifth-place height (3.50 meters) in the pole vault and held steady in seventh (2:59.07) in the 1,000 meters. Thurk missed third place and All-MIAC honors by 33 points, but added five important points to SJU's team total in fourth (4,247). He claimed sixth in both the 60-meter hurdles (9.30) and pole vault (3.40 meters), and ninth (3:00.29) in the 1,000 meters.

Senior Kevin Arthur (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) registered his sixth All-MIAC honor (second indoors) by finishing third (6.91) in the 60-meter dash and junior Carter Grove (Osakis, Minn.) was All-MIAC with a third-place finish (14:59.89) in the 5,000 meters. The performance was SJU's in the MIAC's top three in the event since Dustin Franta '11 in 2011 (also third).

Three Johnnie sophomores scored points by clearing 1.86 meters in the high jump, led by Ungar in fourth. He cleared 1.86 meters on his first try, while Anthony Thurk (St. Bonifacius, Minn./Waconia), who placed fourth in the heptathlon just a few hours earlier, tied for fifth and Alex Seiler (Albany, Minn.) claimed seventh. Both Thurk and Seiler cleared 1.86 meters on their third and final attempt, but Thurk made it over 1.81 meters on his first try to Seiler's second.

The distance medley relay (Nick St. Peter, Riley Berg, Will Mattock, Dillon Diekmann) served as the Johnnies' seventh All-MIAC distinction of the day in third (10:37.64). The MIAC now recognizes All-MIAC as the top-three marks/times for all events, including relays. In the past, only the conference-champion relays were considered All-MIAC.

The final day of competition begins at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, in St. Paul.