The Vikings Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams competed in the two-day 2020 CCIW Indoor Championships Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, Feb. d 29.
With a team score of 73.5, the Men’s team took home a fourth place standing out of nine teams. The Women’s team followed with a fifth place finish, at a higher team score of 75 points.
Both Men’s and Women’s programs represented the Blue and Gold, taking home individual first place wins in the 60 meter sprint (Men’s), triple jump (Men’s), and the mile run (Women’s), as well as a variety of second place finishes in other individual events.
Senior Jill Humecke competed in the mile as well as the 800 meter. Leading up to the meet, Humecke was ranked first in the conference in the mile, something that, according to her, was the biggest motivation when it game to finishing on top.
Bringing home the only individual first place win for the women Vikings, Humecke crossed the mile finish at a time of 5:08.59, putting herself in school history as the fourth fastest indoor mile in Augie history.
“This meet was a weekend full of great performances. I tied my personal best in the mile in the distance medley relay on Friday night, and then ran a lifetime best in the mile on Saturday. Everyone from our event group ran personal bests this weekend,” Humecke said. “We really stepped up and performed the best we could with the situation given to us, especially considering we had a lot of girls not run in events due to injuries or illness. We even had girls volunteer to fill in spots in a relay.”
The ladies competed and pulled off their fifth place team finish with 75 points. The Men’s team scored just 1.5 points less, at a 73.5 point total, however, took the fourth place slot among the mens programs.
Senior Michael Johnson won the men’s 60 meter sprint, and finished out his performance with second place in the 200 meter run. The first place in the 60 adds up to the eighth CCIW title (relay and individual) for Johnson in his career. Johnson took outstanding male athlete of the meet and will be competing for a national title on March 13 and 14.
“Of course I had my eye on my own record and it would be nice to break it again but at the end of the day I’m competing for my team – not for myself – so I have to get the points and that means winning by any means to put my team in a better position to win,” Johnson said.
A representative of the junior class, Mason Wright, competing in the triple jump, reaches a leap of 47’ 10 ½”, earning the individual first place for his event.
“The team’s performance was similar to most conference meets,” senior captain, Siaw Whitaker said. “We had more than 40 season best performances and more than 10 lifetime best. “We had people score points who were not seeded to score, and we had others run, throw and jump outstanding marks. Overall it was a great performance, but we are still looking to keep improving and getting better for the outdoor season.”
Whitaker hopes to help his team get back in the top two spots in future meets, and believes they are ready to tackle the challenge.
Watch Augustana Viking Track and Field teams continue to climb up the leader boards at the Wartburg Qualifier on Saturday, Mar. 7 in Waverly, Iowa.
