WHEATON, Ill. – The Bethel University men's track and field team recently completed a trip to Wheaton College for their third competition of the outdoor season, improving on many of their previous performances.  Saturday's Don Church Twilight meet marked the halfway point of the outdoor season with just three weeks remaining before the conference championships.

"This was a great trip for us, I feel we have had many chances to bond this year and this was just another great opportunity," assessed head coach Andrew Rock.
 
 The day started splendidly for the Royals as they won the 400-meter relay with a season-best time of 42.84 seconds.  The team of Elisha Hinton, Charles Johnson, Jacob Harle and Patrick Klamm made a significant improvement on their performance from last week's showing at the Hamline Invite and have put themselves in good position for the final stretch of the season.  In the open events, Johnson and Hinton placed third and sixth respectively in the 100-meter dash.  The Royals also took five of the top-11 spots in the 200-meter dash, completing a strong day in the sprints.

The men shined in field events as well, led by senior and team captain Cody Britt who won the pole vault with a height of 4.58 meters.  In the long jump, Jacob Harle notched a new season-best with a distance of 6.51 meters.  Throwers Bryce DeBoer and Josh Olson captured second and third-place respectively in the hammer throw while teammates Grant Walters and Ben Irons took two of the top-eight spots in the javelin.  In addition, sophomore Connor Haugen placed fourth in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:05.11.  The men finished the day with a top-five finish in the 1600-meter relay, coming across the line in a time of 3:25.76. 
 
The Royals will now prepare for Thursday evening's Bolstorff Twilight meet at Macalester College which will be followed by the Drake Relays on Friday and Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.