Saint John's travels to Wisconsin-La Crosse's last-chance qualifier this Thursday, May 14. 

THURSDAY IN LA CROSSE
Field Events (start at 3 p.m.)
-Shot Put (Minnerath)
-Discus (Minnerath)

Track Events (start at 4.p.m.)
-4x100-Meter Relay (Jones, Alexander, D. Guth, Murnan)
-400-Meter Hurdles (Smith)
-800 Meters (Molenkamp, St. Peter)
-1,500 Meters (Stencel)
-Steeplechase (Malecha)

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's track and field finished third out of 11 teams last weekend (May 8-9) at the 2026 MIAC Outdoor Championships in Northfield. SJU collected four titles and 10 All-MIAC (top-three) finishes.

Day 1 
Junior Cole Stencel (Mapleton, Minn./Maple River) claimed SJU's first title in the 1,500 meters (3:51.31), crossing the line more than two seconds ahead of the second-place competitor. Senior Nick St. Peter (Maple Grove, Minn.) followed in fifth (3:54.48). The conference championship was the Johnnies' first in the event since Chris Erichsen's back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Senior Mitchell Degen (Brainerd, Minn.) already had the conference title clinched with a distance of 60.14 meters on his fifth throw. He surpassed the entire first flight with his first throw, and set a personal-, facility- and meet-record with a toss of 65.87 meters, which currently ranks seventh in NCAA Division III. It was his second-straight title in the event and the program's fourth over the last five seasons.

Sophomore Anthony Sletta (St. James, Minn.) took second in the long jump with a mark of 6.95 meters on his fourth leap. He was tied with St. Olaf's Max Albertson at 6.92 meters after the first three jumps and passed him with his 6.95, but Albertson went for 7.28 on his sixth and final attempt to claim the MIAC title.

Sophomore Grady Minnerath (Cold Spring, Minn./Rocori) earned his first outdoor All-MIAC honor with a personal-best mark of 48.25 meters in the discus throw for third place.

Freshman Alex Chirhart (St. Cloud, Minn./Rocori) tied for fourth with a height of 4.50 meters in the pole vault. Two other Johnnies - senior Kole Guth (St. Peter, Minn.) and freshman Austin Mohr (Alexandria, Minn.) - finished in the top 10 as well. Guth (seventh) and Mohr (eighth) each cleared 4.30 meters.

SJU's 4x800-meter relay (Montreuil, Molenkamp, McCoy, St. Peter) finished third (7:51.42) behind Bethel and St. Olaf.

Day 2
Stencel collected his second title with one of the top performances of the meet, upsetting St. Olaf's Kevin Turlington on his home track in the 5,000 meters. Turlington owns the best time in the conference and the second-best in the MIAC, but crossed the line four seconds after Stencel (14:27.19). Stencel earned the Johnnies their first MIAC crown in the 5k since Chris Erichsen '08 won back-to-back championships in 2007 and 2008.  

St. Peter posted a season-best 15:26.95 in the 5k for 11th.  

Junior hurdler Cooper Smith (Alvarado, Minn./East Grand Forks) proved his top seed in the 400-meter hurdles, collecting the event title with the 16th-best time in NCAA Division III this season. Smith ran a personal-best and facility-record 52.75 to claim SJU's first title in the event since Max Martin '19 capped a run of three-straight for SJU in 2018.  

The SJU 4x100-meter relay (Alexander, Ferrante, D. Guth, Murnan) earned All-MIAC honors to start the day, finishing second behind No. 10 Bethel with a time of 41.31. 

Senior Jacob Malecha (Lonsdale, Minn./New Prague) earned All-MIAC honors with a third-place and season-best time of 9:34.78 in the steeplechase.  

Junior Bashir Amoud (St. Paul, Minn./Harding) added another All-MIAC run in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing third with his first sub-15 second time in the event (14.75). Freshman Trae Headlee (Billings, Mont./Skyview) also scored points for the Johnnies, crossing the line seventh with a 15.41. 

A pair of Johnnies scored in the 100-meter dash, as junior Kieran Murnan (Lakeville, Minn./Holy Angels) earned honorable-mention honors with a fifth-place run of 10.65 and Aiden Jones (Pierz, Minn.) ended an impressive freshman season with a seventh-place 10.79.  

Murnan also placed seventh in the 200-meter (21.95), just ahead of Derek Guth (St. Peter, Minn.), who took ninth with a 22.62. 

Last week's MIAC champion in the decathlon, sophomore Bailey Evans (Breckenridge, Minn.) finished sixth in the high jump with a personal-best height of 1.91 meters and junior Connor O'Brien (Belle Plaine, Minn.) was right behind him in sixth (1.88 meters). 

Senior Owen Montreuil (Jordan, Minn.) and junior Max McCoy (Bennington, Neb./Mount Michael Benedictine) crossed the line fifth (1:55.28) and sixth (1:56.56) in the 800-meter behind four of six Oles in the race.   

SJU's 4x400-meter relay (D. Guth, Olmschenk, R. Becker, Smith) finished sixth with a time of 3:23.51 to cap the meet's track events.  

TO QUALIFY: For each men's individual event contested, including the decathlon, the top 22 declared student-athletes will be accepted into the competition and the top 16 declared relay teams will participate at the 2026 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships May 21-23, 2026 at Veteran's Memorial Field Sports Complex in La Crosse, Wis.

Any descending-order list ties, by mark, for the last position to be accepted will be resolved by examining, of those tied, the second-best valid qualifying meet performance submitted during the season, and so on until there is no basis for a mark comparison. For a tie not resolved after all available mark comparisons, acceptance will be awarded to the competitor who achieved the original tying mark later in the season. For a tie still not resolved, acceptance will be awarded to the competitor who achieved the second-best valid qualifying meet performance later in the season, and so on until there is no basis for date comparison, including field event series. As a last resort, the tie for the last qualifying position will be decided by the toss of a coin.

NATIONAL STANDINGS: SJU currently boasts seven top-50 marks/times in NCAA Division III this season.

1,500 Meters
26. Cole Stencel, 3:49.71

5,000 Meters
41. Cole Stencel, 14:26.74

400-Meter Hurdles
17. Cooper Smith, 52.75

4x100-Meter Relay
47. 41.21

Shot Put
42. Grady Minnerath, 16.09m

Javelin
7. Mitchell Degen, 65.87m

Decathlon
18. Bailey Evans, 6,592 points