Saturday MIAC track: Men repeat as team winner

May 12, 2001
The St. Thomas men's team scored a 50-point win Saturday over runner-up St. Olaf at the MIAC Track & Field Championships in Northfield. Coach Steve Mathre's team, which started the final day with a 12-point lead, won the team championship for the 17th time in 19 seasons.

UST scored 184 points to top closest pursuers St. Olaf (134), St. John's (117), Concordia (102), Gustavus (99) and Hamline (80).

UST senior Jeremy Heckman, who had a hand in 36 team points this weekend, added his 18th and 19th career conference gold medals as he helped the winning 4x100 and 4x400 relays and was second in the 100 (10.96) and 200 (21.97).

Sophs Justin Hall and Andrew Hilliard each had a hand in 35 points. They both ran on the two first-place relays; Hall won the 400 (48.56) and was fourth in the 200 (22.41); and Hilliard won the 400 hurdles (53.31) and was fourth in the 100 (11.15). The 4x100, which included Tom Hart, clocked 41.63. The 4x400, which included Mark Bates, clocked 3:14.80. Bates also took third in the 400 hurdles (54.98), and Hart was third in the 400 dash (49.13).

Chris Milton had the Toms' other victory in Friday's pole vault (15-3 1-2).

Aaron Johnson scored 15 points for the Toms with a third, fourth and fifth in the discus (151-7), hammer (148-1) and shot put (45-8 1-2). The Toms also scored 17 points in Friday's 10,000 meters with Levi Severson (second in NCAA provisional time of 31:50.88), Nick Maddox (third, 31:55.87) and Brian Preus (sixth, 32:04.10).

Other top-five placers for UST were Dan Slater in the javelin (second, 182-6); Craig Benson (second, 15.09) and Parker Gunderson (third, 15.63) in the 110 hurdles; Ryan Kollmann in the 1,500 (third, 3:59.41); Joe McCarney in the decathlon (second, 6,177); Andrew Kisielius in the long jump (fourth, 22-2 1-2) and triple jump (fourth, 45-0 1-4).

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