Jill Ziskovsky May 2, 2009

Central sweeps league decathlon/heptathlon

PELLA—Central College’s Kurtis Brondyke (sophomore, Clinton) and Carissa Bentz (junior, Ute, Boyer Valley HS) were crowned Iowa Conference champions in the decathlon and heptathlon Saturday at the Iowa Conference track and field multi-event championships while teammates Ethan Miller (sophomore, Seymour) and Jill Ziskovsky (sophomore, Dallas Center, Dallas Center-Grimes HS) each placed second.  

Close on the heels of Brondyke’s 6,491 points in the decathlon was Miller with 6,444 points and Bentz’s 4,419 points allowed her to top Ziskovsky who had 4,351. All four Dutch athletes reached the NCAA provisional qualifying marks of 6,050 for the decathlon and 4,100 for the heptathlon, respectively.

“All four competed really hard,” said head coach Joe Dunham. “They’ve been working hard ever since the last one and their progress in every single even really showed off. The whole Dutch Nation can be really proud of them. They also got us off to a good start for the conference meet.”

With the team points from the top two spots in each event, both the Central men’s and women’s track teams grab an early lead in the race for the conference crown. On the men’s side it’s Central with 18 points, followed by Cornell (6), Loras (5), Wartburg (4), Simpson (3) and Luther (3). On the women’s side it’s Central with 18 points then Wartburg (7), Luther (6), Simpson (5) and Loras (6).

Though Brondyke and Miller didn’t dominate the field as they did in Friday’s five events, both managed to set three personal records Saturday. Brondyke put up new bests in the 110 meter hurdles (15.85 seconds), discus (122 feet, 7 inches) and the 1500 meter run (4:59.43). Miller set new bests in the discus (104-3), pole vault (11-3.75) and 1500 meter run (4:46.82).

In the final three events of the heptathlon Saturday Ziskovsky set a new personal best with a long jump of 16-7.25 and Bentz recorded new bests in the long jump (17-5.5) and 800 meter run (2:34.45).

All four athletes showed tremendous improvement over multi-event performances from earlier in the season. Brondyke made a 403-point improvement, Miller put up 360 points more than in his last effort, Bentz improved by 380 points and Ziskovsky made nearly a 200-point improvement. But Dunham doesn’t see any reason why they can’t all continue to improve on their scores from Saturday before the season ends.

“One thing we need to work on is getting through an entire decathlon consistently,” Dunham said. “Kurtis in the pole vault didn’t perform badly but mentally I think it affected him a little bit. That’s something we can improve on for nationals.”

Dunham now has to decide what events to enter Brondyke, Miller, Bentz and Ziskovsky in for the league meet on Friday.

“Obviously we want to get them into as many events as they can handle without overdoing it,” Dunham said. “We’ll have to take a look at it early in the week and make some tough decisions.”

The Iowa Conference track and field meet hosted by Central will begin at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium in Pella Friday with field events beginning at 1 p.m. and running events at 4 p.m. The meet concludes Saturday.