Calvin Celebrates Valentine’s Day Early at NCAA III Track and Field Championships / Strohbehn 20th in Women’s 5K
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
By John Leerar
CANTON, NY-To say that Ethan Valentine had a good weekend at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships at St. Lawrence University would be completely incorrect.
The freshman out of Mason, Ohio instead had one of the greatest weekends of his life.
After being seeded just 14th in the 400 meter dash, Valentine ran the third-best time in his heat on Friday and then used a late comeback to take 5th in the finals and secure an All-American finish.
Valentine ran his 400 in a blistering 47.71 seconds, shattering his personal record of 47.85 set earlier this season.
“I wasn’t really trying to do anything special out there,” said Valentine. “I was just going out there to compete and see what I was capable of. I didn’t really expect that result to happen but I’m sure glad it did. It feels absolutely amazing to be an All-American, and I’m so happy this happened.”
Calvin assistant coach for middle distance Rick Otte was exuberant in his praise of Valentine. “We came into today knowing that he had something else left in the tank after yesterday’s preliminaries. He’s a true competitor, and he was ready to give it all he had in the finals. I think that his positioning in lane 9 helped because he had to run scared and I think that motivated him. He just has an incredibly strong will to finish things off, and that showed in the last 40 meters of today’s race where he jumped from 8th to 5th and was three-thousandths away from 4th. He got himself here and he’s coming out of this as a pretty happy guy.”
Valentine is the first true freshman All-American for the Calvin men’s track and field program since 1985. He is the third individual in Calvin’s men’s track and field history to earn NCAA All-America honors in the 400 meters, joining Dave VerMerris (1967) and Phil Sikkenga (2001).
The Calvin men finish out the national meet with 7 points, tied for 39th amongst Division III squads.
WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
By John Leerar
CANTON, NY- Sophomore distance runner Lauren Strohbehn (Stillwater, MN/St. Croix Prep HS) competed in the 5,000 meter run Saturday at the NCAA III Track and Field Championships in Canton, NY.
Strohbehn was looking to build on her remarkable regular season success, which culminated in a qualifying time of 17:05.58 and the 12th seed in the national meet.
Unfortunately, Strohbehn finished 20th in a time of 17:51.47, keeping up with the leaders for the first half of the race before fading late.
Despite the result, the race provided valuable experience at the national meet for the talented sophomore.
“Lauren ran with the veterans of Division III today,” said Calvin distance running coach Brian Diemer. “It’s definitely a whole lot different than running a time trial. It just shows how important it is to get that experience at nationals. She stayed with the best in the nation for almost four kilometers today and was in great position for most of the race. She fought valiantly, but the 5000 meter race is very tough on you mentally and physically and it definitely took its toll. We’re definitely very proud of her, she’s had a great year. She comes away with increased knowledge with how to compete at this level and how to run with the best in the nation. She will develop a lot this offseason and come much better next season. I’m excited she got here this year and it’s going to be a lot of fun watching her compete next year.”
After the national meet, the Calvin women finish with 1 point, which puts them in a tie for 73rd in the standings.
Received on Sat May 23 23:25:08 2015
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