Keller’s 800-meter record highlights two-meet day

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Records continued to fall Saturday as St. Thomas men's and women's track & field competed at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa and the Minnesota Classic in Minneapolis. Olivia Keller broke the women's 800-meter run record while the men totaled four top 10 marks.

Keller, running her first career 800m race as an individual event, broke the previous Tommie record of 2:13.70 by nearly three seconds, taking sixth at the Iowa State Classic in 2:10.85. Her record was one of nine top 10 marks set by the women at the meet, which features a 300m, oversized track.

Dashing to the Top
·      Two of the men's three top 10 marks on the day came in the 200m and 400m dashes. Mitchell Piehl won the 200m dash in 21.75, improving his program's second-ranked time. Johnny Bezdicek moved into a tie for the program's sixth fastest time in the 400m dash, finishing third in the event in 48.90.
·      Cameron Heppner ran the 600-yard race for the first time in his career and recorded the program's fifth fastest time in the event at 1:13.13. It is the first time a Tommie has cracked the top 10 list in the event since the record was set in 2011 by Mike Hutton (1:12.53).
·      Rebecca Randleman now trails two of her teammates on the women's top 10 list, finishing third in the 200m dash in 24.93.
·      Hannah Cornelius and Hailey Hindt improved their program top 10 times in the 400m dash to fourth and fifth, respectively. Cornelius took ninth in the event with a time of 57.13 while Hindt finished 12th with a time of 57.84.

Everybody Jump
·      Brendan Harter tied a career best and set a personal best as a Tommie of 2.05m in the high jump, winning the event and moving into a tie for fifth best in program history.
·      Freshman Brooke Wisdom entered the top 10 list for the women in the pole vault, finishing in a tie for fourth with a mark of 3.35m.
·      Keller improved her program third-best time in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.85 in the prelims. She finished fifth in finals in 8.87.

Going the Distance
·      Three of the Tommie women's runners in the 3000m run improved or entered the program's top 10 list in the event.
·      Freshman Olivia Pauly moved from third to second with a time of 9:50.94, taking fifth in the event.
·      Ava Pankratz finished behind Pauly on Saturday with a time of 9:53.52, moving below the 10-minute mark for the first time and ranking fourth all-time.
·      Elsie Kmecak entered the top 10 list, ranking seventh in program history, after taking 12th in the event with a time of 10:01.07.
·      Molly Desotell led all 3000m runners Saturday with a time of 9:44.88 to take fourth in the event.
·      Three Tommies finished among the top four of the 3000m run at the Minnesota Classic, led by Natalie Cocking who brought in the event win with a personal best 10:34.30.

Stepping to the Podium
·      The Tommies combined for nine top-three finishes between the Iowa State and Minnesota Classics, including three event wins.
·      Morgan Koppelman took third in the pole vault at the Iowa State Classic with a leap of 3.50m.
·      Danika Apple led the Tommies in the 200m dash with a second-place time of 24.81, 0.18 shy of her program record.
·      Isabel Castilleja and Amber Haukoos each took third in the 800m run and 3000m run, respectively. Castilleja set a personal best time of 2:27.58 while Haukoos ran a personal record 10:38.89.

QUOTABLES
Women's Head Coach Ashley Lucas:
"Today was a mixed bag of results but somewhat expected at this point in the season. The biggest take away is the team knowing it is not always going to be a linear progression to get where we want to go. We need to figure out individually how to respond when things don't necessarily go the way we want them to. With that said, there were still a lot of highlights.

"Olivia Keller continues to have a stellar season, adding another record to her name in the 800 meter after running the (60 meter) hurdle prelim and final. Alexis Pratt made the finals in the 60 meter, Hannah (Cornelius) and Hailey (Hindt) ran great in the 400 meter, Sophie (Yetter) and Malayh (Metcalf) ran really well in the mile and the 3000-meter crew continued to drop times. We're getting to a pivotal point in the season where we need to have blinders on, per se, and focus on us and what's going to make us the most successful."

Men's Head Coach Pete Wareham:
"The men were able to add to some of the team momentum that we have been building over the last few weeks. This is exactly what we are trying to do individually and as a team. Brendan Harter had a really good day n the high jump tying his all-time best and was on form. Mitchell Piehl is a rock-solid, high-end athlete and had another good day running the second fastest all-time mark in the 200 meter. Johnny Bezdicek ran his first collegiate 400-meter race and looked like he can be a top 400-meter runner in the league. It was also nice to see Cameron Heppner race well and he should be very good in a couple of weeks. Also, Jack Rosner had another strong hurdle race along with his other events. We will now do some fine tuning in our training to set ourselves up for the league championships."

UP NEXT
St. Thomas is back on the road for a multi-day meet Feb. 14-15 in Brookings, S.D. The Tommies will compete at the SDSU Indoor Classic as one of two meets before the Summit League Championships Feb. 28-March 1 back in Brookings.

FOLLOW ALONG
For more information on St. Thomas Men's and Women's Track & Field, follow along on Twitter at @TommieXCTF. Follow both programs on Instagram at @tommiewxctf and @tommiemtfxc

-- St. Thomas Athletics --

Keller’s 800-meter record highlights two-meet day

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Players Mentioned

Danika Apple

Isabel Castilleja

Natalie Cocking

Hannah Cornelius

Molly Desotell

Brendan Harter

Amber Haukoos

Cameron Heppner

Hailey Hindt

Olivia Keller

Elsie Kmecak

Morgan Koppelman

Ava Pankratz

Olivia Pauly

Mitchell Piehl

Alexis Pratt

Rebecca Randleman

Jack Rosner

Brooke Wisdom

University of St. Thomas Athletics