The Wayne State men’s indoor track and field team finished third with 69 points at the 2017 Northern Sun Conference Indoor Championships that concluded Saturday at Myers Fieldhouse in Mankato, Minn.
The Wildcats had two conference champions while three finished as All-NSIC performers.
Antoine Bardou was the individual champion in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:28.95 and placed fourth in the mile run at 4:13.69. Wayne State’s other conference champion was Robert Sullivan in the heptathlon with a new school record point total of 5,141 points. He also placed eighth in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.57 seconds.
Braxton Adams earned All-NSIC honors with a second-place finish in the 60-meter dash finals with a season-best time of 6.93 seconds.
Brady Metz collected All-NSIC accolades, taking third in the triple jump (48-0 1/2) to go with a seventh-place finish in the long jump at 22-11 3/4.
Derek Lahm scored points in three events, earning All-NSIC honors with a third in the heptathlon (4,970 points), placing fourth in the long jump (23-6 3/4) and taking fifth in the triple jump (47-3 3/4).
Clay Kramper collected a sixth in the 200-meter dash (22.38) while Nick Fly came in seventh in the 1,000-meter run finals at 2:36.99.
Two Wildcat throwers recorded personal best marks in the weight throw to score points in the event. Matt Nemec came in sixth with a throw of 56-1 3/4, more than two feet better than his previous personal mark; and Cade Kalkowski was right behind in seventh at 55-6 1/2, over three feet ahead of his previous best effort.
The distance medley relay team of Nick Schmit, Brandon Marker, Kak Ayaj and Nick Fly came in eighth place with a time of 10:45.61 while the 1,600-meter relay team of Lahm, Kramper, Travis Eller and Habib Jallow also placed eighth with a time of 3:28.86.
In women’s action, Michaela Dendinger picked up a pair of All-NSIC honors, placing second in the weight throw and third in the shot put, to lead the Wayne State women to an 11th place finish with 17 points.
Dendinger earned All-NSIC honors Friday with a second-place finish in the weight throw, a personal-best mark of 63-4 1/4, which was also an NCAA provisional mark that now ranks ninth in NCAA Div. II. She followed that performance on Saturday by placing third in the shot put with a top throw of 46-0 3/4 to earn All-NSIC honors in that event as well.
Other Wildcats that scored points included senior Melissa Kroll taking seventh in the 600-meter run at 1:43.55 while sophomore Tia Jones recorded a seventh in the weight throw with a top mark of 43-4 1/2.
Minnesota State swept the team titles. The men won a sixth straight NSIC indoor title with 183.5 points, finishing ahead of runner-up Sioux Falls (154). The Minnesota State women scored 171 points to easily outdistance runner-up University of Mary’s 103 points.
