Weather Impacting Many Central Events on Saturday
Forecasted storms this afternoon has caused changes to several athletic events for Central College. Central’s American Rivers Conference softball doubleheader at Luther College Saturday will now start at 11 a.m. The games can still be heard live on 92.1 KRLS, with Trevor Castle on the call. The Dutch baseball team’s weekend trip to Bethel University in Minnesota has changed from a Friday-Saturday doubleheader to a Saturday-Sunday twinbill. Saturday there will be a single nine-inning game at 1 p.m. and then Sunday, they will play a doubleheader of seven-inning games, tentatively set to start at noon. The Central women’s golf team’s Battle at Bos Landen Saturday has been moved up to 10:30 a.m. at the Bos Landen Golf Club in Pella. The final change affects the triangular track and field meet at Simpson College between Central College and Nebraska Wesleyan University. The meet has been changed to a dual, due to Nebraska Wesleyan deciding not to come. The meet will still be today starting with field events at 10 a.m. and running events at 11 a.m. The majority of the meet will be held in Indianola but the high jump, pole vault and javelin throw will be held in Pella. The high jump and pole vault will be inside Central’s H.S. Kuyper Fieldhouse.
Heitz Highlights Doane Decathlon with 2nd Place Finish
A second-place finish in the decathlon by Lucas Heitz highlighted the Central College track and field team’s appearance at the Jim Dutcher Memorial Classic hosted by Doane University Friday.
Heitz paced the five Dutch decathletes with 6,370 points. Jaxon Thompson was third with 6,259 points and Reid Pakkebier was fourth with 6,048 points. Brody Klein was eighth with 5,357 points and Nick Thompson was 10th with 5,226 points. Krissa Larson was fifth in the women’s heptathlon with 4,029 points and Rayna Sickels was eighth with 3,852 points.
A very consistent effort across all five of day two’s events for Heitz propelled him into the No. 2 spot. He finished in the top three in four of the five events. Jaxon Thompson had the best discus throw in the field at 127 feet, 2 inches and Nick Thompson had the best javelin throw (146-7). Klein had a stellar day in the pole vault with the best clearance in the field (14-5.25) but after an unfortunate fall in the 110-meter hurdles cost him a chance at a bigger score.
Larson had the best javelin throw in the field (122-4) en route to a 15-point improvement on her career-best heptathlon. A huge increase in her career-best long jump highlighted day two for Sickels, who was sixth in the event with a leap of 16-8.75
The rest of Central’s track and field athletes will run in Indianola tomorrow for a duel with Simpson College. To view full results of the Jim Dutcher Memorial Classic, visit this link.
Two Central Men’s Golfers in Contention in Illinois
Central College’s Harold Dobernecker and Lucas Wendel both carded 1-over-par 73s and share third place after one round of the Millikin (Ill.) University Take Back the Night Challenge Friday.
The Dutch are fourth in the 12-team field with a score of 308. Drew Rogers shot 77, Drake Hamilton and Cole McGriff each had a score of 79 and Pella’s own John Oltman had an 82. Wendel is playing as an at-large entrant and his round is not included in the team score. Other Central at-large entrants are Dustin Haines and Jake Moffett, who each shot 79.
Friday’s round was at Hickory Point Golf Course and Saturday moves to Red Tail Run Golf Course in Decatur where winds are expected to gust up to 45 miles per hour.