Robert Fribley has held the 400-meter dash school record at DePauw for more than eighty years after he ran the event with a time of 48.52 seconds in 1935. However, that record was finally broken on Saturday as first-year Jordan Booker outpaced the field with a time of 48.48 seconds.
“That’s a record we’ve been trying to break for a long time,” Head Coach Kori Stoffregen said. “We’ve had really good kids along the way, but we’ve never had a talent as exceptional as Jordan. He’s very talented and works really hard and will only continue to get better in his next four years here.”
Booker’s school record highlighted a great afternoon for the DePauw track and field team as they hosted every Division III team from the state of Indiana for the Indiana Division III Championship. The men’s team finished the meet in fourth place with 107 points, while the women’s team finished in fifth place with 107 points.
“The championship was the first time we saw a lot of the Indiana teams,” junior Mackenzie Jones said. “I think it gave us a better range of times to compete against and the chance to have a smaller meet that was still competitive.”
The Tigers pulled off victories in six individual events, including Booker’s 400-meter dash. On the men’s side sophomore, Zach Batt paced the field in the 5,000 meters as he crossed the finish line with a time of 16:09.83. First-year Cole Martin also placed in the event after placing fifth with a time of 16:26.17. Sophomore Paul Christian continued the strong showing from the men’s distance team as he won the 10,000 meters with a time of 33:07.14. Junior Nick Meszaros also picked up a seventh place finish in the race with a time of 35:08.45.
Batt carried his momentum into the 1,500 meters as he ran the event in 4:10.21, which was good enough for third place. Martin turned in his second fifth place finish on the afternoon as he finished with a time of 4:13.71.
The men’s team also received several points from their sprint group, led by Chase Wright’s season best in the 100 meters. Wright finished the race in 10.92 seconds which landed him in fourth place. First-year Dante Stewart picked up a second fourth place finish for the sprint group in the 200 meters as he ran the race in 23.47 seconds.
On the women’s side, first-year Haley Thompson led a trio of Tigers in the 10,000 meters for the top three spots as she won the event with a time of 40:42.62. Senior Lois Miller finished in second place in the event, while senior Becca Conley finished in third place as they ran with times of 41:01.45 and 41:12.24, respectively.
First-year Natalie Gruszka picked up a win in the 800-meter run when she outpaced Hanover College senior Brittany Ferrell with a time of 2:24.12. Sophomore Gabrielle Coffing scored for the team in the event as well as she crossed the finish line in eighth place with a time of 2:36.55.
Sophomore Kaitlyn Daanen dominated in the sprint events as she won the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.99 and placed in second place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.63. Senior Amanda Weber was close behind Daanen in both events after placing third in the 200 and fourth in the 100 with times of 27.59 and 12.81.
With two more meets to take place before the NCAC championships, the track and field team has begun to focus on the meet and prepare for it.
“Our overall goal for Conference is going to make finals on that first day,” senior Cam Stewart said. “We’re in a good spot right now. We have a lot of people seeded highly in Conference and now that we can train outside, we’re only going to get better.”
The Tigers have one of their final tune-ups before Conference this Friday as they travel to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for the Rose-Hulman Twilight.
