Track team’s stand out performance

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The University of Dallas men and women’s track teams competed this weekend at the Texas Lutheran University (TLU) D-III invitational in Seguin, Texas.

This weekend was a huge improvement for the whole team in times, and Dallas had their largest number of participants of any meet this season. The young team is gaining more experience each week and expect to continue steadily improving as the season moves on.

“This is the best the team has looked so far, which is to be expected,” stated senior runner Kevin McGuirk, from Front Royal, Va. “Each week you hope that you get just a little bit better and build up to conference. Some people yesterday had bigger improvements than others, but overall it was a good day for the team.”

There were several standout performances for Dallas on both the men and women’s sides. The standout performer from the men’s side was Tomas DePetris from Houston, Texas, who set a new personal record in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:03.83.

“Tomas killed it out there yesterday,” McGuirk commented. “He had a monster performance in the 800. We still have a month to go until conference, so he has plenty of time to get even better. If he keeps this up, he will be a legitimate contender for a medal.”

DePetris’ time ranks as the seventh best time in the conference this season.

“Overall, I think the whole team did a great job in their events, and I think everyone had a good time at the meet,” DePetris said. McGuirk also obtained a personal best that re-broke the school record in the 400-meter hurdles, with a time of 58.24. Freshman Solomon Schroder from Coupland, Texas, ran a season-best 27.12 in the 200-meter dash. Another freshman, Jacob Fink, from Coppell, Texas, had a season-best in the pole vault of 3.49 meters.

For the Crusader women, there were numerous standout performances. Freshman Anna Wilgenbusch from St. Paul, Minn., placed third overall in the 5,000-meter run and the mile run. She recorded personal-bests in both races with times of 19:34.77 and 5:49.93, respectively. Wilgenbusch’s mile was an impressive display, only 0.7 seconds off the school record.

“Not being a distance runner, it is hard [for me] to judge what her best event is, but she is such a strong runner, as young as she is, that she could contend for a medal against the more experienced runners in our conference in either the 1500 or the 5K,” McGuirk said.

Another freshman, Athena Garnica, from Phoenix, Ariz., set a personal record in javelin with a distance of 25.20 meters. Junior Mary Korth from McKinney, Texas, registered a personal best in the 5,000-meter with a time of 21:54.36, a one-minute improvement on her previous best; she also recorded a personal best in the 800-meter, with a time of 2:49.11, which was good enough for eighth place.

Overall, the track team had a solid weekend with a lot of improvements that make the rest of the season look very promising.

“The next few meets are going to be really good,” McGuirk concluded.

The next meet for the Crusaders is this upcoming weekend at the Dan Veach Invitational in Magnolia, Ark.

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