Track teams do well at UNI-Dome Open
February 25, 2003
The ISU track teams went into Cedar Falls on Friday looking for a tuneup, and came away firing on all eight cylinders.
Five women captured first-place finishes, as did three men, at the UNI-Dome Open as the Cyclones gathered momentum for next weekend’s Big 12 meet in Lincoln, Neb.
Women’s coach Dick Lee was particularly impressed with long jumper Davonna Carr. He said it was one of the meet’s biggest breakthrough performances.
Carr was not even practicing with the team last semester because she was on a co-op. Her winning leap of 18-7 1/4 edged teammate Christina Peterson, who took second with 18-5.
Capturing the weight throw was Susan Sherman with a season-best throw of 60-8 1/2. “She’d still like to be able to throw farther than that, but she did well,” Lee said.
Stephanie Suntken cruised to victory in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:05.71. “She was able to sit with everyone else and had better speed in the last 200,” Lee said.
In the 800-meter run, the ISU women were in full control. Carey Morris took first in 2:17.33, and Ada Anderson was next across the line, finishing in 2:17.99. Anderson was nearly three seconds ahead of the next finisher.
Ursula Peterson paced the field in the 600-meter run with a time of 1:35.43. Following in third place with a time of 1:38.44 was Jenny Mockler.
The Cyclone men saw success in multiple areas, also.
“The biggest event for us was the 1,000 [meter run],” men’s coach Steve Lynn said.
In that event, the men took the top three places. Freshman Kristjan Hunter grabbed the top spot, finishing in 2:30.11. Following him were Ryan Pence in 2:31.15 and Eric Dasso in 2:33.19.
“They went out and controlled the race right from the beginning,” Lynn said.
The next finisher, Keith Solverson of Wartburg College, was more than three seconds behind Dasso.
Rocky Moore also picked up a victory for the men. His heave of 54-6 3/4 was a few feet short of his season best, but it was still enough to fend off Andy Paulsen of Wisconsin-Platteville, who took second place.
Freshman Justin Sherman picked up another victory for the men, although he was officially running unattached. His time of 1:23.26 in the 600-meter run held off a trio of runners from Wartburg College. Sherman has only been at Iowa State since January.
Event winners were not the only ones to receive praise from Lynn.
“Mitch Anderson ran his best race of the year in the 800,” Lynn said.
Anderson’s time of 1:55.77 earned him third place. Not far behind Anderson was Iowa State’s Tom Ries, who placed sixth in 1:57.94.
The ISU men were also well represented in the weight throw, placing third through fifth. Leading Iowa State’s pack was Kendall Fogle with a throw of 57-4 3/4. Lynn says further improvement is likely.
“He may throw 59 feet this week,” Lynn said.
Following Fogle were Tony Stewart and Kris Ruhland with throws of 54-10 3/4 and 53-9 1/4.
Daniel Kaczmarczyk, who is redshirting the indoor season, competed unattached and performed well while taking precautions not to re-injure his ankle. In his primary event, the long jump, he placed second with a leap of 23-2.
Kaczmarczyk also turned in the fastest time in the preliminaries of the 60-meter dash, but did not compete in the finals. Former ISU runner Lamont Johnson, who was also competing unattached, won the finals, after trailing only Kaczmarczyk in the preliminaries. His winning time was 6.86.
“We didn’t want to take any chances with [Kaczmarczyk’s] ankle,” Lynn said. “They would have undoubtedly gone 1-2 in the finals.”
Lynn said that Tony Douglas, who has been dealing with a hamstring injury, is questionable for the conference meet next weekend, as is Alfred Singoei, who has the flu.
The teams will not have a hard week of practice this week as they prepare for the conference meet.
“The hay is already in the barn,” Lee said. “We’re trying not to do so much that we carry fatigue into the meet.”