ST. PAUL—The Bethel University men's track and field team completed another chapter in their final approach of the 2015 indoor season on Friday night as they competed in the Kilt Classic. The meet was hosted by Macalester College and functioned as the precursor to next week's conference championships.

"We were able to get a lot of personal bests at the right time and that's what we were hoping for," assessed head coach Andrew Rock.

Senior and team captain Matt Berens competed at the other pre-conference championship meet, which was held at St. Olaf College and broke the school record in the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:32.49. Junior teammate Tom Ritter also had a big personal record, as he won the 1-mile run at Macalester with a time of 4:33.82.

The Royals also put together an extremely strong performance in the 200-meter dash, as numerous athletes dropped significant time from their season bests and increased their standing for the conference championships. 

Led by sophomore Patrick Klamm, who finished second, the Royals placed seven runners in the Top 20 of the event, all notching personal records for the season.

In addition, throwing sensation Bryce DeBoer swept the shot put and weight throw events, continuing to make his push to compete in the upcoming national meet.

Bethel will now prepare for the MIAC Championships to be held this upcoming Friday and Saturday at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.