Throwers shape up for record season

The St. John’s track and field team took first place in their home triangular meet Jan. 29.

The Johnnies had 32 athletes place in the top three and 11 winners overall.

They totaled 147 points which was more than enough to beat opponents Macalester (63 points) and Minnesota-Morris (31 points).

“As a team, the meet went really well,” said Jeremy Karger-Gatzow, SJU head track and field coach “Everyone looked good. It was a good first meet of the year.”

Thrower Eli Mollet now holds the SJU record in weight throw. The senior broke the record with his first throw, beating it by two centimeters.

Mollet then beat that with his second throw which measured 17.71 meters, breaking the previous record by 0.28 meters. The previous record was set by Tim Juba in 2011.

“It’s awesome. There was a lot of emotion in the moment,” Mollet said. “It’s satisfying but I know there is still a lot left to do to get to nationals… I’m very proud of it and it’s a good achievement, but I’m ready to keep going.”

Mollet has high hopes for the team and himself.

“I want to see the team win a conference championship indoor and outdoor…I want to make it to nationals, and I want to be an All-American. I think that’s very attainable. I [have] to keep grinding and keep working hard and I think I can get there.”

The weight throw team is in good shape, currently ranked fourth in the country.

Mollet said the team wants to get up to the top three and maybe even reach number one.

Karger-Gatzow sees the future success for the throwing group because of their attitudes.

“They enjoy what they’re doing, they put a lot of thought into their training and technique, and they just study it. They go above and beyond what we do in practice, and that makes my job easy. They have fun, and it’s just a great group to work with,” Karger-Gatzow said about the throw team.

When it comes to an event group, there isn’t many closer than the SJU throw team.

“We’re a really tight group,” senior Gavin Rupp said. “We like having fun at practice and meets, and I think that really brings a lot of energy. We can focus and get intense when we need to and that’s a double-edged sword where we like to have a lot of fun but also when we need to put in work, we can put in work.”

The rest of the team put on a solid performance with plenty of top finishes.

Senior Maguire Petersen won the 60-meter hurdles (8.96) and tied for first with teammate Alec Ungar in the high jump (1.88 meters).

First-year Anthony Thurk took first in the long jump (6.31 meters). Senior Michael Wallace placed first in the triple jump (13.56 meters) and sophomore Joseph Charbonneau won the pole vault at 4.39 meters.

Senior Brady Labine led the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.98 while junior Thomas Nemanich won the 800-meter run (2:04.47).

Junior Mitchell Grand won the 3000-meter race, crossing the finish line in 8:41.21 and senior Dillion Diekmann placed first in the mile (4:31.77).

Junior Kevin Arthur ran a career-best 6.97 seconds in the 60-meter dash, 0.06 seconds from the school record set by senior Ryan Miller in 2020.