Brueggen, sprinters sharp for Men's Track

Non-team scored
at UMD Invite (M), May 03, 2009

Sophomore Andrew Brueggen just missed an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the hammer to lead the Tommie men's track and field entrants at Saturday's Minnesota-Duluth triangular meet.

Several unattached runners joined UST, UMD and St. Cloud State, but team scores weren't kept. St. Thomas won six events and placed second in seven others in its last tune-up for the May 8-9 MIAC Championships.

Brueggen's toss of 185-7 is six feet better than his previous best and ranks second best in Division III this season, just off the 187-0 automatic standard. Brueggen also placed second in the discus (138-3).

St. Thomas had four NCAA provisional times in the sprints. In the 100 meters, the Tommies had five runners run under 11.00 led by two NCAA provo times with third-place Joe DeFrance (10.75) and foruth-place James Ewer (10.78). Sam Moen (10.82), Pat Jager (10.83) and Chris Bradford (10.93) all had season-best times.

In the 200, Jager was first in 21.66 and DeFrance was third in 21.79, both under the NCAA provo standard. Jager's time ranks 14th best in D-III. Ewer ran 21.96 to give UST three sub-22.00 times, and Moen placed sixth in 22.50.

Matt Boumeester won the 1,500 in 3:58.03. Matt Griswold was first in the 400 hurdles in 54.77 and took second in the 110 hurdles in 15.35. In the pole vault, Chris Victor, Anthony Kelly and Dave Thomas placed 1-2-3 as each cleared 14-6. Ewer won the long jump in 21-10 3-4.

In the 400 meters, Phil Bastron (50.68) and Ben Yorkovich (51.28) placed 2-3. In the 5,000, Scott Smith (15:58.88), John Sunder (16:01.25) and Nick Nygaard (16:22.83) placed 2-3-5. Joe Rohlfing was third in the 400 hurdles (56.63). Crawford Hubbell was third in the 800 (2:00.05). Evan Schwartz (4:05.08) and Seth Rosvold (4:07.35) placed fourth and fifth in the 1,500. Devin Dirth was fourth in the shot put (43-11 3-4). Cameron Roemhildt was second in the triple jump (43-4 1-4) and sixth in the 110 hurdles (16.22). Moen also took fourth in the long jump (20-8). Brian Pink took second in the high jump (6-0).

At the Thursday-Friday MIAC multi-event hosted by Carleton, Ryan Maciej placed eighth out of 13 entrants in the decathlon with a score of 5,442, including seconds in the high jump and 110 hurdles. That gives UST one point in the outdoor track and field meet, which will be held next Friday an Saturday at Carleton.