RESULTS | Day 1 Recap

WINONA, Minn. - The men's track and field team earned 3rd place at the MIAC Outdoor Championships this weekend, their highest finish in program history. The Royals scored a program record 123 team points. 

Bethel earned 4 events titles in Winona: the 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 4x400m relay, and the discus. Freshman Jayson Ekiyor blazed his way to victory in the 110m hurdles, running a personal best 14.24 seconds. That is the 4th fastest time in Division III and just 0.04 off the school record. Along with Ekiyor's 1st place finish, Josh Sampson took 3rd in 14.70, David Myres was 5th in 15.01, and Lukas Walton was 7th in 15.38. 

Joel Smith ran away from the field in the 400m hurdles, winning by a full second in 52.32. Teammate Tyler Sealock ran a season best 53.33 to give the Royals a 1-2 finish. Lukas Walton was 6th in 56.20, and David Myres was 8th in 56.81. Smith and Sealock are currently ranked #2 and #16 in Division III. 

The 4x400m relay team of Jacob Parent, Sealock, Sampson, and Smith led wire-to-wire and won the race in a time of 3:15.98. 

Senior Gabe Irons dominated the discus, winning with a throw of 52.25m / 171'5". Irons won the competition by over 19 feet. Irons also had a pair of 2nd place finishes in the shot put and the hammer throw. On Friday, his toss of 15.34m / 50'4" gave Bethel 8 team points, while freshman Evan Larsen added 6 more points with his 3rd place finish, throwing 14.61m / 47'11.25". Irons moved up from 4th place into 2nd on his final throw of the day in the hammer. His best toss was 52.61m / 172'7".

In the sprint events, Jacob Parent took 3rd in the 400m dash. Parent ran a season best 48.48. Freshman Godsword Simon took 7th place in the 100m dash with his time of 11.17 after running a season best 11.03 in the preliminary round.

The 4x100m relay team of Ekiyor, Alec Braun, Albert Smith, and Parent earned all-conference honors by taking 3rd with a season best time of 42.38, just 0.07 out of 2nd place. 

After a stellar 4th place performance in the 10k on Friday night, Ike Mendel ran another terrific distance race on Saturday. In the heat, Mendel was able to run a season best 15:13.72, which placed him 6th overall.

Lukas Walton was a big point scorer for the Royals in the field events. At the MIAC Decathlon one week earlier, Walton took 3rd place with a school record score of 6,394 points. Along with his aforementioned hurdle exploits, Walton took 4th place in the high jump with a leap of 1.94m / 6'4.25". He also earned 7th place with his jump of 4.31m / 14'1.75" in the pole vault. 

Senior Sean Bjork finished his collegiate career on a high note. Bjork jumped a lifetime best 6.52m / 21'4.75" in the long jump for 8th place.