Members of the Johnnies' distance medley relay travel south for Wartburg's Last-Chance Meet this Friday, March 6, in Waverly, Iowa. – Live Results | Live Video

WHO IS GOING TO IOWA: Four Johnnies (Nick St. Peter, Cooper Smith, Owen Montreuil, Cole Stencel) are scheduled to compete in the distance medley relay at 6:20 p.m. Friday.

LAST CHANCE: This weekend's meets serve as the last opportunities for student-athletes to qualify for the 2026 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships March 13-14 at Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala. The top 20 marks/times nationally in each individual event and the top 12 in each relay race earn their respective trip to nationals.  

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's finished third out of 11 teams at the 2026 MIAC Indoor Championships last weekend (Feb. 26-28) at Carleton. Bethel won its fourth-straight MIAC indoor title with 167 points, followed by St. Olaf (145), SJU (108) and Gustavus Adolphus (74).

Junior Cole Stencel (Mapleton, Minn./Maple River) won the MIAC title in the 1,000 meters and mile run, and the Johnnies were All-MIAC (top three) in five other events.

BROKEN RECORDS: Stencel won the conference title in the mile run with a program- and meet-record time of 4:10.26. The 4:10.26 broke his own record of 4:10.42 set earlier this month on Feb. 7 at Division I Minnesota's Gopher Classic. Stencel became the first Johnnie to win the MIAC title in the event since Chris Erichsen '07 in 2006 (4:19.78). 

Stencel won his second event of the meet with another SJU-record time in the 1,000 meters. His time of 2:27.44 broke the previous record of 2:27.71 set by Thomas Feichtinger '16 in 2016.

Senior Owen Montreuil (Jordan, Minn.) claimed fourth in the 600 meters with a program-record time of 1:21.52, which was 0:00.36 faster than his second-place time a year ago and 0:00.25 from third place and All-MIAC honors. He surpassed SJU's record of 1:21.87 set by Michael Marschel '04 in 2004 – a record that he missed by 0:00.01 last year. 

The Johnnies' 4x200-meter relay (Jones, White, H. Mohr, Murnan) finished second, by 0:00.43 of a second to Bethel (1:28.36), with a program-record time of 1:28.79. The previous record of 1:29.06 was set in 2019 (Drew Schoenbauer, Max Martin, Jack Young, Ryan Miller).

MORE ALL-MIAC HONORS: Junior Kieran Murnan (Lakeville, Minn./Holy Angels) earned his first individual All-MIAC distinction with a second-place time of 22.39 seconds in the 200-meter dash.

Sophomore Grady Minnerath (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) collected his first All-MIAC honor with a second-place finish in the shot put. His first toss of 15.26 held for second place behind a championship-record mark of 18.54 meters out of the hands of Concordia's Cooper Folkestad.

Sophomore Bailey Evans (Breckenridge, Minn.) achieved his first All-MIAC distinction with a second-place finish, by 71 points, out of 18 competitors in the two-day heptathlon (4,712 points). 

SJU's distance medley relay (Molenkamp, Witschen, McCoy, St. Peter) posted a third-place time of 10:21.61.

OTHER POINTS: A pair of freshmen scored for the Johnnies in the pole vault. Austin Mohr (Alexandria, Minn.) took fourth (4.48 meters) and Alex Chirhart (St. Cloud, Minn./Rocori) behind him in fifth (4.38 meters). 

Murnan led a trio of Johnnies in the 55-meter dash with a fifth-place time of 6.58 seconds. His prelim time of 6.50 seconds recorded yesterday would have been good for third in the final. Senior Brennan Blake (Minneapolis, Minn./Totino-Grace) and freshman Aiden Jones (Pierz, Minn.) followed in seventh (6.63) and eighth (6.88), respectively.

Junior Noah Besemann (New Brighton, Minn./Irondale) followed Evans in fourth place with a heptathlon total of 4,557 points, 137 from third and All-MIAC honors. He claimed second overall Friday with a mark of 4.20 meters in the pole vault.

Evans and junior Connor O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) claimed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the high jump at 1.81 meters.

Montreuil took sixth in the 800 meters (1:54.85), while Minnerath and junior Cooper Smith (Alvarado, Minn./East Grand Forks) claimed seventh in the 35-pound weight throw (15.04 meters) and 400-meter dash (50.64), respectively. Smith was also seventh in the 200-meter dash (22.61).

Senior Nick St. Peter (Maple Grove, Minn.) was sixth in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:30.89. 

Freshman Trae Headlee (Billings, Mont./Skyview) matched his prelim time of 8.00 seconds to finish seventh in the 55-meter hurdles. 

The Johnnies' 4x400-meter relay (Witschen, Montreuil, H. Mohr, Smith) ended the meet with a fourth-place finish in 3:23.01.

LAST YEAR'S MEET: SJU's distance medley relay broke the school record and Max Lelwica '25 won the heptathlon at last year's Last-Chance Meet. The relay (St. Peter, Witschen, Montreuil, Stencel) finished third with a time of 10:04.89, which was a whole second faster than the previous program record of 10:05.89 set in 2022 (Tommy Allen, Brady Labine, Alexei Hensel, Mitch Grand).

Lelwica entered the final day in first place with 2,736 points and recorded personal bests in three events to finish with a total of 5,063, which topped his previous high of 4,836 registered earlier in the season (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) at Division II MSU-Mankato's Mark Schuck Open Multi. 

Lelwica won the day's first two events, the 60-meter hurdles (8.54) and pole vault (4.20 meters), and placed second in the 1,000 meters (2:46.47). His time in the final event was nearly five seconds faster than his previous PR.

NATIONAL RANKS: Five Johnnies and two relays are in Division III's top 100 in seven events.

800 Meters
57. Owen Montreuil, 1:53.23

Mile Run
19. Cole Stencel, 4:07.11

3,000 Meters
29. Cole Stencel, 8:13.78

4x400-Meter Relay
80. SJU, 3:19.83 (Witschen, Montreuil, Mohr, Smith)

Distance Medley Relay
59. SJU, 10:13.28 (Molenkamp, Witschen, McCoy, St. Peter)

Shot Put
52. Grady Minnerath, 15.87m

Heptathlon
33. Bailey Evans, 4,736 points
48. Noah Besemann, 4,584 points