Impressive performances in the shortest races of the day at the Prairie Wolf Invitational Friday night highlight a strong start to 2018 for the Central College women’s track and field team.
The Prairie Wolf Invitational was hosted by Nebraska Wesleyan University, but contested on the banked track at the Devaney Sports Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
After qualifying for the 60-meter dash final with a preliminary time of 8.06 seconds, Kate Patton got within .04 of matching her career best, finishing fourth in 7.99. She came back for a new personal record time of 1:00.23 in the 400-meter dash, taking fifth.
“Kate had a great day,” coach Joe Dunham said. “I was really impressed with where she’s at this early in the season. It was good to see her confident and running well again.”
In just her fourth 60-meter hurdle race at Central, freshman Mary Gray grabbed the No. 5 spot on Central’s all-time list after clocking in at 9.28 in the finals. She finished the race in fifth place after having the sixth-best qualifiying time.
“I thought Mary Gray looked really, really good in the hurdles,” Dunham said. “She had a good leg in the 4×400 as well.”
Gray ran the second leg of the 4×400-meter relay that had a time of 4:09.10 to finish fourth. Freshmen Kiki Pingel (Pella) and Jenna Willett and junior Hope Heitman ran the other legs.
The Dutch also received a new career-best from Paige Doehrmann in the 400-meter dash, claiming ninth in 1:01.66. The long jump competition saw Courtney Kruthoff leap 16 feet, 3 inches for an eighth-place finish.
Evie Kammeyer was in Europe for the track and field season last semester with Central’s Study Abroad. She showed no signs of rust in the mile, clocking in at 5:31.32 and placing third. That time is only four seconds off her career-best effort from February of 2015.
Central will once again host the Dutch Athletics Classic on Saturday, January 27, starting with field events at 11 a.m. The first race on the track will be the 60-meter hurdle prelims at 2 p.m.