A pair of podium (top five) finishes and a pair of school records stood out as highlights for the Bruin track team competing at the Sioux City Relays on Friday and Saturday (April 8-9). The meet, held at Sioux City's Elwood Olsen Stadium near the campus of Morningside University, features a competitive collegiate field as well as the top high school athletes in the area. Cold and blustery conditions on Friday gave way to sunshine and calmer winds on Saturday allowing some good early season performances.
Bruin athletes were in action on Friday, starting with the women's 800 meters. All three Bruin runners produced season bests with Caroline Feig less than one second from the school record in 2:35.23, Ali Hobbs in her first effort at the distance this season ran 2:44.84 and Hannah Perkins recorded a 2:52.86. In the men's 800, Aaron Newton also gave the school record a scare with his 2:05.15, just 0.14 shy of the record, and a two-second improvement on his best of the season.
Gabe Poppen was next up for the Bruins in two events and he also recorded two season bests. Poppen went 24.55 in the 200 meters and came back a short time later in the 400 meters, running 55.08.
As darkness fell over the stadium, the winds relented and perfect conditions prevailed for women's 10,000-meter run and the Bruins' first podium finish of the meet. Madison Nelson's plan of starting conservatively and running down those in front of her over the 25 laps worked nearly to perfection as she caught all but one competitor, Eden Winslow of Dordt who was just nine seconds ahead at the finish. Her time of 38:21.7 was just 8 seconds shy of the NAIA national qualifying "B" standard and places her currently thirteenth among NAIA athletes. This was the first time this distance was contested by a Bruin and consequently a school record, one which may last for a long time.
The Bruins returned on Saturday to contest two events, the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and the 1500 meter run. In the steeplechase, Collin Kotz and Edrei Murillo both ran season bests with Kotz claiming the second podium spot for the Bruins capturing fifth place while lowering his own school record to 10:07.66. Murillo cut sixteen seconds from his lifetime best as he placed seventh in the field. Kotz and Murillo are currently first and second among North Star athletes on the 2022 outdoor track performance list.
In the final event for the Bruin squad, Olivia Russo and Ali Hobbs lowered their season bests by nearly ten seconds each with Russo running 5:26.14 and Hobbs following closely in 5:27.86 becoming the second and fourth fastest performers in program history. Hannah Perkins finished hard to pass three runners in the home stretch and was just off her season-best recording 5:51.83
Edrei Murillo and Aaron Newton came back for their second event of the meet, representing the Bruins in the men's 1500 meters. Murillo was under his season-best in 4:20.10 while Newton crossed in 4:34.13.
Head Coach Craig Christians: "Once again, Coach Barbosa and myself are very pleased about the effort we see when it comes time to compete. We are running tired and we've got some mid-season ailments but the coaches love it when the athletes bring that attitude of "giving it what they've got" to the starting line. That attitude is contagious and we are getting buy-in from everyone on the team. I need to mention Madison's performance since I thought it was extraordinary. I figured she'd do well but her performance in the 10K was nothing short of amazing. That was 38 minutes I will remember for a while."
The Bruins will next travel to Kearney on Friday, April 15 for the Loper Invitational hosted by UNK. Events kick off at 3:00 PM at the Kearney High School track.
