NCAA Track: Toms score 11 pts, get 4th in 4x100, 5th in 4x400

May 25, 2002
see men's results posted after each event here

see women's results here posted after each event

St. Thomas had seven men's All-Americans and tied for 23rd place with 11 team points as the three-day NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships finished Saturday at Macalester College in St. Paul.

The St. Thomas men's 4x100 relay team of Andrew Hilliard (JR-Woodbury), Roman Cress (JR-Mpls./South), Tom Hart (SO-South St. Paul) and Carson Glad (FR-Cold Spring/Rocori) ran 41.49 and placed fourth out of nine teams in Saturday's finals. The Toms' relay scored five team points. Lincoln (Pa.) won the event in 40.28.

Glad anchored the fourth-place relay despite running with a painful stress fracture in his left leg. Glad ran four races this weekend Thursday, Friday and Saturday despite the injury.

Hart ran in place of Glad later in the day on the 4x400 relay, and in his first national meet running the 400 he helped the Tommies place fifth in 3:12.51, good for four team points. That was the second fastest time in school and MIAC history, behind UST's 3:12.37 in the prelims at the 2001 NCAA meet. Hart ledoff in 48.9, Justin Hall (JR-Maplewood/Tartan) ran 48.0, freshman Jason Schwietz (FR-Forest Lake) ran 47.0, and Hilliard clocked a 48.1 anchor. Central won in 3:10.

Lincoln and St. Thomas were the lone teams to place in the top five of both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. It was St. Thomas' third consecutive top-five NCAA finish in the 4x400, and Hall and Hilliard have raced on all three All-America teams.

UST's Craig Benson (JR-North St. Paul/Tartan) earned his second All-American honor of his career as he placed sevneth of nine in Saturday's finals in the 110-meter high hurdles with a 14.97 clocking. He earned two team points.

Karolien Bastiaens (SO-Wayzata) placed sixth in the pole vault Friday morning to score three team points for the Tommie women. Bastiaens, the MIAC indoor and outdoor champion, earned All-America honors and scored three team points as she cleared 11-6 1-2. That broke her own school record of 11-6 1-4 set two weeks earlier at the MIAC Championships.

UST's 4x400 relay was seeded ninth and advanced to Saturday's 5:15 p.m. finals with the fifth fastest time. Hilliard (48.5), Glad (47.6), Jason Schwietz (FR-Forest Lake) (48.1) and Justin Hall (JR-Maplewood/Tartan) ran a season-best 3:14.37.

Tommie cross country All-American Brian Preus (JR-Robbinsdale Armstrong) placed 10th out of 17 qualifiers in Thursday night's 10,000 meters in 31:37 under cold, windy conditions.

St. Thomas' Joe McCarney (SR-Redwood Falls/Redwood Valley) placed 10th out of 16 entrants in the decathlon, which concluded with five events Friday. McCarney, in his first NCAA Championship meet, scored 6,234 points.

Cress also ran the 200-meter dash prelims and finished 10th in a season-best 21.58 -- one spot away from making Saturday's nine-man finals. In Friday night's 100-meter prelims, Cress (10.98) and Glad (11.06) failed to make the nine-man finals.

The MIAC had no champions and one runner-up -- Megan Daymont of St. Olaf in the 800.

see complete list of male-female qualifiers here

see NCAA heat sheets here