Results

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John's track and field opened its outdoor schedule by hosting the CSB+SJU Optimistic Invitational on Saturday, March 28, in Clemens Stadium and the Donald McNeely Spectrum.

The unscored meet was a large one, featuring student-athletes from Concordia-Moorhead, Division II Concordia-St. Paul, Crown, Gustavus Adolphus, Division II Jamestown (N.D.), Martin Luther, Minnesota-Morris, Northwestern, St. Catherine, St. Scholastica, Division I St. Thomas, Division I South Dakota State, Division II Southwest Minnesota State, NAIA Valley City State (N.D.), Wisconsin-River Falls and Wisconsin-Superior.

The Johnnies won six events and collected 19 top-six performances on the day. SJU did not have a competitor in the 800 meters, steeplechase, 5,000 meters or triple jump. The pole vault and high jump were held indoors due to wind.

Senior Mitchell Degen (Brainerd, Minn.) took first in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 60.83 meters, his second of four attempts. Sophomore Bailey Evans (Breckenridge, Minn.) followed in fifth (51.97 meters) and freshman Holden Dvorak (Princeton, Minn./Spectrum) was sixth (50.73 meters).

Junior Cooper Smith (Alvarado, Minn./East Grand Forks) won the 400-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 54.09 seconds, while junior Kieran Murnan (Lakeville, Minn./Holy Angels) was victorious in the 100-meter dash (10.79). Freshman Jaden Alexander (Minneapolis, Minn./DeLaSalle) was sixth (11.08) in the 100-meter dash.

Four Johnnies finished in the top six of the 1,500 meters, led by senior Nick St. Peter's (Maple Grove, Minn.) win in 4:04.49. Junior Lars Molenkamp (Almere, Netherlands/Oostvaarders College) was close behind in second (4:05.01), while senior Owen Montreuil (Jordan, Minn.) and junior Max McCoy (Bennington, Neb./Mount Michael Benedictine) followed in fifth (4:07.82) and sixth (4:08.73), respectively.

SJU finished first and second in both relays. The 4x400-meter relay (Derek Guth, Cooper Smith, Wyatt Witschen, Hunter Mohr) blazed to a 3:19.65, while the B relay (Ryan Becker, Zach Olmschenk, Aiden Langheim, Connor O'Brien) was second (3:32.68). The 4x100-meter relay (H. Mohr, Anthony Ferrante, Abdul Sesay, Woody Bien-Aime), meanwhile, claimed first (42.76) and the B (Liam VanRoekel, Witschen, D. Guth, Andy White) was second (43.24).

Sophomore Anthony Sletta (St. James, Minn.) was third, first among Division III competitors, with a mark of 6.78 meters in the long jump.

Sophomore Grady Minnerath (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) claimed fifth, third among Division III throwers, in the shot put (14.39 meters) and freshman Trae Headlee (Billings, Mont./Skyview) was fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (16.56).

Senior Kole Guth (St. Peter, Minn.) placed sixth in the pole vault (4.25 meters) and sophomore Hunter Mohr (Alexandria, Minn.) was sixth in the 200-meter dash (22.84), 0.04 ahead of freshman Derek Guth (St. Peter, Minn.) in seventh.

The Johnnies return to action on Friday (Wisconsin-Platteville Invitational) and Saturday (MSU-Mankato Open), April 10-11.