Principia College’s men indoor track and field team traveled to Illinois College with thoughts on producing new records and personal bests. Sophomore Drew Clark reset the college men’s indoor mile record in 4:20.69, breaking Kevin Capp’s decade-old record (4:22).
Clark led the race from start to finish, outpacing and outdistancing his closest competitor by 9 seconds. Clark highlighted the team’s accomplishments, but that only created momentum for the following races.
Sophomore Duncan Wilder raced aggressively in the second heat of the men’s 5000-meter run leading half of the race finishing in 17:41.40. It is the first time that Wilder has raced at this distance indoors and will certainly drop his time significantly.
Oyintari Aboro and Dana Gaubatz paired up in their heat of the men’s 200-meter heat finishing side-by-side, running in times of 24.60 and 24.55 respectively. Previous to Clark’s record performance, both Aboro and Gaubatz had sprinted in the men’s 55-meter dash with times of 6.75 and 7.03 respectively. Aboro drops his season best in the 55-meter dash as he is pursuing the school record (6.59 - Platini Diakabana, 2005).
Teammate sophomore Daniel Osae raced his pair of short sprint races with a 7.37 in the 55-meter dash and a 26.07 in the 200-meter dash.
Freshman David Kidson raced in the mile run with teammates Nick Larsen and Philip Riley, all in the same heat, finishing in times of 4:54.76, 5:11.19, and 5:28.49. Kidson led most of his heat and nearly won his heat being edged out at the finish line by 0.11 seconds.
Freshmen Sam Nickell and Jacob Meier entered into their 800-meter run heats ready to race. In better physical fitness and a hungrier competitive spirit, though Meier found himself boxed in on the third lap, he dropped three seconds off his last 800-meter run to 2:02.47, while Nickell (alongside alum and college professor Jon Langton) dropped his season time to a new season best 2:08.83.
A convert to the distance group, Joseph Kariuki begins to concentrate on his ability as a middle-distance runner, competitng in the 800-meter run finishing in 2:20.33.
The men’s team travels to DePauw University this year’s site for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. They will compete on Saturday, February 13.