Kurtis Brondyke jump May 22, 2008

Brondyke places fourth in long jump, Central relay leads NCAA field

OSHKOSH, WIS.—Central College was the fastest qualifier in the men’s 4x400-meter relay on the opening night of the NCAA Division III track and field championships Thursday.

The unit of Matt Patrick (sophomore, Dallas Center, Dallas Center-Grimes HS), Alex Miller (sophomore, Adel, Van Meter HS), Luke Bolander (sophomore, Des Moines, East HS) and Guy Dierikx (senior, Port Byron, Ill., Riverdale HS) slid past Augustana (Ill.) at the wire, winning its heat in a season-best 3:13.99 to Augustana’s 3:14.00. It was the fastest of the three heats and gives the Dutch lane No. 5 in Saturday’s championship final at 4:55 p.m. on the campus of the Univ. of Wis.-Oshkosh.

Meanwhile freshman Kurtis Brondyke (Clinton) made a noisy national meet debut, earning all-America honors by placing fourth in the men’s long jump. Brondyke’s jump of 23 feet, 1.75 inches was just shy of his career best of 23-4, which he registered at the Central Last Chance Open May 14. His best leap in the preliminary round Thursday was 22-9 and his placing effort came on his fifth jump. Francis Nugent of Redlands (Calif.) took the title at 23-6.75. Buena Vista’s Eric Bertelsen, who edged Brondyke for the Iowa Conference crown May 2, placed sixth at 22-10. Brondyke was the only freshman in the top six.

But Jason Fisher (senior, Montezuma) came up short in the discus. His toss of 156-0 wasn’t good enough to earn a spot in the finals and he placed 13th.

Fisher gets another shot Friday, however, as he competes in his specialty, the hammer throw, at 6 p.m. He placed third in the NCAA hammer throw last season.

Women miss finals—Central’s only qualifier in the women’s field was the 4x400-meter relay team, but the Dutch failed to advance to the finals.

The unit of Emily Teas (freshman, Indianola), Jill Ziskovsky (freshman, Dallas Center, Dallas Center-Grimes HS), Rachelle Tipton (sophomore, Newton) and Kari Hutchinson (senior, Charles City) was third in its heat at 3:52.74. That put them 11th and  out of the nine-team finals.

“They’re pretty disappointed but if you’d told us two months ago that we would run 3:52 at the national meet, I think we’d have taken it,” coach Kevin Sanger said. “They’ve made a lot of strides as a relay and for our women’s program. They’ve done it with great attitudes and with great work ethics. They’ve come light years from where they started. They’re disappointed, but we’ll be back.”

Hard-fought men’s relay—While content with the time his men’s squad posted in the 4x400-meter relay, Sanger is thrilled the Dutch are moving on after an intensely competitive preliminary race. Dierikx, a seven-time all-America honoree, was 5 meters behind when he started the anchor leg.

“It was a great race,” Sanger said. “Guy got the baton in third, but he always likes to compete and just finds a way to get in there and get it done. They were pretty even heading down the stretch and he pulled ahead right at the end.

“I thought Matt (Patrick), Alex (Miller) and Luke (Bolander) all ran well, too. Matt started the race out in lane seven, which is kind of tough, but they all did what they had to do.”

Central is making its 11th straight NCAA appearance in the relay and its 16th in 17 years. The Dutch were fourth a year ago and have won the title three times. Central entered the meet with the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the field (3:14.09). Six squads have turned in faster times this season than what Central registered Thursday, led by North Central (Ill.), which posted 3:12.79 earlier in the season. North Central was third in Central’s heat Thursday, finishing in 3:14.42.

“The biggest thing is we got a lane for the finals,” Sanger said.

Brondyke’s improvement has been dramatic.

“That’s kind of the way it’s been all year for him,” Sanger said of the three-sport athlete. “Once we got him on the runway, we felt good about his chances. He likes to compete and hopefully he’s getting an idea of just how good he could be.”

Fisher competed hard as well, Sanger said.

“Really, it was his second-best series (of throws) all year,” he said. “He didn’t throw badly but he had to catch a big one and it didn’t happen.”

Sanger is confident Fisher will come back strong in the hammer throw.

“He’s excited,” Sanger said. “That’s kind of his event and I think he’ll do well.”

           

Long Jump
Preliminaries

Round 1, Flight 1

    1 Francis Nugent, Sr, Univ of Redlands    23'6.75"[+0.4w] (7.18m)q 

    2 Matthew Booth, Sr, Juniata College        22'11"[-0.2w] (6.98m)q 

    3 Erik Diley, Sr, St. John's (Minn)          22'7"[-0.4w] (6.88m)q 

    4 Brandon Copeland, Sr, Bridgewater (Virginia

                                              22'5.75"[-0.9w] (6.85m)q 

    5 Buzzy Brown, So, Carthage College       22'1.75"[-0.8w] (6.75m)  

    6 Beresford Brown, Sr, Moravian College    22'1.5"[-2.6w] (6.74m)  

    7 Ben Harmon, Fr, Washington (Missouri)   21'6.75"[-0.9w] (6.57m)  

    8 Eric Rogers, Sr, Misericordia                  21'6.75" (6.57m)  

Round 1, Flight 2

    1 Hanneus Ollison, Jr, McMurry University    23'6"[-0.4w] (7.16m)q 

    2 Eric Bertelsen, Jr, Buena Vista Univ    22'9.25"[-0.6w] (6.94m)q 

    3 Kurtis Brondyke, Fr, Central College (Ia) 22'9"[-1.5w] (6.93m)q 

    4 Pj Theisen, Sr, Univ of St. Thomas      22'7.25"[-1.7w] (6.89m)q 

    5 Kyle Hayes, Fr, Rowan University         22'6.5"[-2.5w] (6.87m)q 

    6 Stephen Morton, So, Mass Inst Technology   22'3"[-3.4w] (6.78m)  

    7 Joe Simmons, Jr, Illinois College       22'1.75"[-2.4w] (6.75m)  

    8 Frank Radlof, So, Keene State College    21'7.5"[-0.1w] (6.59m)  

      Ryan Robertson, Sr, Ohio Northern             ND[-2.8w]

Final

    1 Francis Nugent, Sr, Univ of Redlands    23'6.75"[+0.4w] (7.18m)  

                            (F, 6.81, 7.18, 6.97, 6.74, 6.64)

    2 Hanneus Ollison, Jr, McMurry University    23'6"[-0.4w] (7.16m)  

                            (6.94, 7.16, 7.10, 6.89, 6.99, P)

    3 Matthew Booth, Sr, Juniata College      23'5.25"[-2.8w] (7.14m)  

                            (6.98, 6.86, 6.73, F, 6.94, 7.14)

    4 Kurtis Brondyke, Fr, Central College (Ia)

                                              23'1.75"[-1.2w] (7.05m)  

                                  (F, 6.93, 6.62, F, 7.05, F)

    5 Erik Diley, Sr, St. John's (Minn)      22'11.75"[-0.7w] (7.00m)  

                            (6.88, F, 6.73, 7.00, 6.84, 6.89)

    6 Eric Bertelsen, Jr, Buena Vista Univ      22'10"[-1.2w] (6.96m)  

                            (6.94, F, 5.29, 6.81, 6.96, 6.88)

    7 Kyle Hayes, Fr, Rowan University           22'8"[-0.6w] (6.91m)  

                            (6.71, 6.50, 6.87, 6.91, F, 6.86)

    8 Pj Theisen, Sr, Univ of St. Thomas      22'7.25"[-0.9w] (6.89m)  

                            (6.72, F, 6.89, 6.89, 6.86, 6.88)

    9 Brandon Copeland, Sr, Bridgewater (Virginia

 

4x400 Meter Relay

Round 1, Heat 1

    1 Central College (Ia) (Matt Patrick, Alex Miller, Luke

      Bolander, Guy Dierikx)                          3:13.99Q         

    2 Augustana (Illinois) (Evan Holschbach, Kyle Ekberg,

      Matt Somers, Ted McMillan)                      3:14.00Q         

    3 North Central College (Jon Howard, Adam Pennington,

      Adam Johnson, Greg Jackson)                     3:14.42q         

    4 Emory University (Alex Greenhouse, Tyler Faits, Jason

      Campbell, Freddy Linton)                        3:14.54q         

    5 Bethel University(Mn) (Taylor Ferda, Zach Schlegel,

      Eric Rhode, Josh Otto)                          3:14.79q         

Round 1, Heat 2

    1 Wisconsin Stevens Pt (Brad Koback, Nick Ver Duin, Josh

      Schwinn, Pat Leonard)                           3:14.62Q         

    2 McMurry University (Terry Smith, Bryce Williamson,

      John Mikalik, Hanneus Ollison)                  3:15.29Q         

    3 Nebraska Wesleyan (Derek Carson, Andy Coppersmith,

      Evan Knight, Chris Wolf)                        3:15.63          

    4 Lynchburg College (Chris Word, Will Tolbert, Brandon

      Edwards, Earl Graves)                           3:15.92          

    5 Cortland S U N Y (Gino Bisceglia, John Riese, Adam

      Groesbeck, Matt Bieringer)                      3:16.01          

Round 1, Heat 3

    1 Williams College (Andrew Arons, Deividas Seferis,

      Taylor Fitzgerald, Alex Hoerman)                3:15.53Q         

    2 Illinois Wesleyan (Segun Olopo, Mike Conti, Noah

      Dunham, Matthew Harden)                         3:16.14Q         

    3 Wisconsin Oshkosh (A J Hollanquest, Jared Morris,

      Kevin Lofy, Ben Zill)                           3:16.22          

    4 Wisconsin La Crosse (Alex Rooker, Ryan Mendez, Jon

      Doble, Dylan Randolph)                          3:16.90          

      Wheaton College (Ill) (Ben Berg, Ian Peebles, Jason

      Norem, Cole Armerding)                               DQ          

 

Discus Throw
Preliminaries

Round 1, Flight 1

    1 Dan Hytinen, Sr, Wisconsin Whitewater            194-11 (59.42m)q

                                           DIII Season's Best

                                U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier

                                     J.J. Keller Field record

            Was 184-5 (56.21m); Sean Pruitt, Unattached, 2007

    2 Judd Lutz, So, Mount Union College                167-9 (51.13m)q

    3 Chris Shaw, So, Earlham College                   163-2 (49.75m)q

    4 Adrian Kibiersza, So, Aurora University           159-2 (48.53m)q

    5 Ryan Ament, Jr, Wisconsin Stout                   157-3 (47.92m)

    6 Richard Valenti, So, Univ of Redlands             157-0 (47.85m)

    7 Jason Fisher, Sr, Central College (Ia)            156-0 (47.54m)

    8 Sean Larson, Jr, Wisconsin Stout                  145-6 (44.35m)

Round 1, Flight 2

    1 Derek Marks, Sr, Univ of St. Thomas               172-2 (52.48m)q

    2 Bobby Riley, Jr, Wisconsin La Crosse              167-2 (50.96m)q

    3 Jamie Simpson, Sr, Mount Union College            163-4 (49.79m)q

    4 Patrick Nicholson, Sr, Mount Union College       162-10 (49.65m)q

   5 Doug Melton, Sr, Washington& Jefferson            162-4 (49.49m)q

    6 Chris Okolie, Sr, Farmingdale S U N Y             158-5 (48.29m)

    7 Zach Wilson, Sr, Monmouth College (Il)           153-10 (46.90m)

    8 Jon Helm, So, Hamline University                 146-11 (44.78m)

Final

    1 Dan Hytinen, Sr, Wisconsin Whitewater             196-5 (59.87m)

                           (56.49, F, 59.42, 56.37, F, 59.87)

                                           DIII Season's Best

                                    NCAA Championships record

       Was 196-1 (59.76m); Dan Austin, Williams College, 2005

                                U.S. Olympic Trials qualifier

                                     J.J. Keller Field record

    2 Derek Marks, Sr, Univ of St. Thomas               172-2 (52.48m)

                       (51.08, F, 52.48, 52.36, 50.40, 49.42)

    3 Bobby Riley, Jr, Wisconsin La Crosse              167-9 (51.13m)

                       (43.93, F, 50.96, 47.74, 48.31, 51.13)

    4 Judd Lutz, So, Mount Union College                167-9 (51.13m)

                       (51.13, 46.50, 49.45, 49.63, 48.14, F)

    5 Chris Shaw, So, Earlham College                   164-9 (50.22m)

                   (46.59, 49.75, 46.06, 46.68, 50.22, 47.21)

    6 Jamie Simpson, Sr, Mount Union College            163-4 (49.79m)

                       (49.79, 44.11, 46.06, 48.95, 49.08, F)

    7 Patrick Nicholson, Sr, Mount Union College       162-10 (49.65m)

                   (49.08, 49.65, 49.44, 49.31, 48.21, 48.29)

    8 Doug Melton, Sr, Washington& Jefferson            162-8 (49.59m)

                           (49.49, F, F, 46.45, 47.08, 49.59)

    9 Adrian Kibiersza, So, Aurora University           161-6 (49.22m)

                           (48.53, F, 47.64, F, 48.31, 49.22)

 

4x400 Meter Relay

Round 1, Heat 1

    1 Illinois Wesleyan (Ali McCoy, Mackenzie Clemens,

      Brooke Halcott, Rachel Anderson)                3:48.03Q         

    2 Wisconsin Stevens Pt (Angela Steffens, Kathleen

      Folbrecht, Andrea Irvine, Laura Simonis)        3:48.64Q         

    3 Wisconsin La Crosse (Caitin Perra, Sarah Duchow,

      Ashley Pershing, Danica Schaefer)               3:49.21q         

    4 Wisconsin Eau Claire (Liz Faller, Laura Broner,

      Corrina Saager, Liz Kooistra)                   3:52.46          

    5 Brockport S U N Y (Randi DeBoy, Christine Reamer,

      Shannon O'Keeffe, Amanda Elias)