PRs top JC’s day at duals

Personal-best performances were the theme for the Jimmie women’s track team on Saturday at the Cobber Duals.

The Jamestown College men also had a solid showing, although it was not at full strength with injuries and illness keeping a chunk of the team from going to Moorhead.

Aleona Reyes ran her first race of the season and notched a win in the 1,000 meters in a time of 5:40.42. She also ran the anchor leg in the runner-up Distance Medley Relay.

“The positives today were many,” JC women’s coach Jim Clark. “We had a lot of personal-best performances and some very good individual days.”

The Jimmie men got another strong performance out of their 4x400 relay team, bolstered by John Tyler Petsch’s strong 51.44 third leg. Caleb Garcia, Scott Roemmich and Joe Ikier rounded out the team, which also won last Saturday at Concordia.

“It was a real competitive race. We had Concordia and Dickinson State breaking down our back, but they were able to hold them off,” JC men’s coach Ed Crawford said.

Pole-vaulter Emerald Gyuricza moved up to No. 3 on the school’s all-time list with a second-place finish of 10-0.75. Josie Bopp, meanwhile also PRed at 8-0.

Nikki Iverson was second in her lone event, the triple jump.

Clark singled out juniors Hope Carr and Kayla Schumacher, who had lifetime bests of 9.80 and 9.85 for third and fourth in the 60 hurdles. They also tied for third in the 400 (62.88) and ran matching 400s in the DMR.

“(Hope) and (Kayla) have put in a lot of work and it is paying dividends,” Clark said.

High-jumpers Taylor Brown and Micki Glass went 4-5 at 5-2.25 and 5-0.25.

Samantha Goff’s first 800 resulted in a fourth-place finish. Rachel Perish also PRed (2:32.85).

Other PRs were Courtney Kjeldgaard (high jump, long jump, triple jump), Sheyenne Stewart (600) and Meghan Kratofil (weight throw).

“We built some confidence in many areas today and got better in a lot of events,” Clark said.

Garcia continued to show promise for the Jimmie men. Along with his time in the 4x4, he also nearly qualified for nationals in the 60 hurdles in a PR of 8.69.

“He’s doing some nice things for us,” Crawford said of Garcia.

Weight-throwers Garrett Tenney and Mike Findlay beat everybody accept Valley City State national champion Damien Moore. Tenney PRed at 51-6.25, while Findlay hit 49-7.

Spencer Kamoni ran in a loaded 1,000-meter race and again just missed qualifying for nationals. He was fifth in 2:34.75, a PR, but came up less than a half second short. All four runners ahead of Kamoni broke the fieldhouse record.

“He had the opportunity to go, but he didn’t do it. Obviously, he didn’t run poorly or anything like that. Hopefully we can get him qualified next week,” Crawford said.

Jesse Hacker’s consistent performances continued in the shot put with a fourth-place effort (45-1.75.)

Another highlight was Garcia, Tyler Streif, Lance Johansen and Evan Schreiner running a strong third (94.58) to strong Minnesota State-Moorhead and Dickinson State teams.

The Jimmies head back to the F-M area next weekend for their first look at the new Bison Sports Arena and a Saturday meet.

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at dselvig@jamestownsun.com

Tags: track and field, college sports, sports, track, jimmies