The pole vault pit was the place to be Saturday at the Indoor Track center as two separate track and field Tiger athletes obtained great results during the DePauw Invitational. Sophomore Kyle Mackey was the event winner on the men's side with a jump of 4.2 meters (13'9.25") and freshman Pascale Hansen set a new team record with a height of 2.95 meters (9'8") on her way to a second place finish.
Both women's and men's squads finished fourth during the meet. Bethel was the overall winner on the women's side with 140 points compared to the Tigers 79.5 points. The distance medley relay of – was the lone first place finish for the women's team.
The men saw a talented and deep Wabash team win the meet with 192 points. The men's 55 points earned them a fourth place finish. Mackey's win was the only top finish for the team.
"You know, you can't greedy about winning," Mackey said. "I always set high goals for myself and hope to obtain them. What I jumped was what I wanted and it got me the win."
Men's and women's Head Coach Kori Stoffregen was pleased with the results from both teams.
"I really thought both teams made a lot of progress this week," said Stoffregen. "Fourth place for both squads was good. I'm looking forward to our last home indoor meet. It was great to see Pascale Hansen set the new school record in the pole vault."
Hansen was surprised, but excited about setting the record this past Saturday. She expresses high team and individual hopes for the rest of the season. "It's going to be a great year, people are breaking records all over the place." said Hansen. "I'd like to beat the indoor and outdoor record."
A litany of athletes from the women's team had top five finishes including a third place finish from freshman Hope Jordan in the mile run, a fifth place finish in the same event from senior Claire Hollis, two third place results from sophomore Katie Doran and freshman Elizabeth Dilbone in the 600 meter and 1,000 meter races respectively, a second place finish from the 4x200 meter relay team and a third and fifth place finish from junior captain Chenae White in the 60 and 200 meter dashes. In the 60, White broke the previous team record she last weekend with a time of 8.26 seconds.
Senior captain Sam Wong finished seventh in the long jump and was proud of the team's performance.
"We're behind other teams because we've only had like two weeks of practice, but everyone is definitely improving," Wong said.
On the men's side, freshman Steven Rutherford continued his success in the long jump with a third place finish and senior captains Tyler Giesting and Jon Cripe finished third and fourth in the 800 and 1,000 meter runs respectively. The 4x400 meter relay team rounded off the day with a fifth place finish.
Giesting was not overly excited about his performance, but did express confidence in his team's competitiveness.
"I'm not thrilled with how I ran," Giesting said, "the times were okay, but I made a couple of very basic mistakes in both races I can correct."
"With every week of practice the men are getting better. A lot of our contributors are freshmen and these are some of their first college track meets. Eventually they can be the core of this team which is exciting," continued Giesting.
The young rosters on both the men's and women's teams have proven that inexperience does not necessarily mean negative results. Both sides saw a multitude of freshman compete and finish in top spots in their events. Four freshmen from both squads ended the day with top ten finishes in individual events.
The Tigers now have just three weeks before their first-ever indoor conference championship meet at Crawfordsville.
"We just hope to keep getting better, the younger athletes to keep setting new (personal records)," Wong said. "We're staying healthy and we hope everyone can stay healthy." Giesting also looks for his team to improve in the upcoming weeks. "Coach is still figuring out what events everyone will compete in at the conference meet," Giesting said, "so over the next weeks I'm sure he'll be tweaking a few things and setting a strategy to maximize everyone's talent and abilities."
The Tigers will host their last home meet of the indoor season Saturday, Feb. 8 at the DePauw Classic. The meet is set to start at 11 a.m.