Freshman shatters 2 GPAC marks

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BY KEN HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star

Some Great Plains Athletic Conference indoor track records date back 37 years. So when a conference meet record is broken, it’s usually by tenths of a second or fractions of inches.

Charity Miles, a Northwestern College freshman from Thedford, Neb., apparently doesn’t understand the standards.

She blasted the record in the women’s 5,000-meter run by 34 seconds and shattered the mark in the 3,000 by 24 seconds at the GPAC Indoor Championships on  Saturday at the Devaney Sports Center.

“Honestly, I was so tired and running slower and slower in practice the last two weeks, I was fully prepared to lose and didn’t even know if I’d finish anything today,” Miles said. “But I kept pushing and I just ran today and it worked out.

“I always just run as fast as I can. The family story goes that my mom was a power walker and I had to run to keep up since I was able to stand.”

Doane’s Kym Bennett used the same non-strategy in winning the 1,000 in a record 2:57.71, helping the Tigers rally to win the 3,200 relay and finishing eighth in the 3,000.

“For the 1,000, I run a flat-out 600 and hope I have enough to run the rest of the race with some speed,” said the former standout at Bellevue West. “I got so excited by how the rest of the team is doing that I went faster than I’d been practicing and faster than I thought I could.”

The Doane women won the team title for the 19th consecutive year and the Tiger men won for the second straight year.

Bennett, a sophomore at Doane and mother of 3-year-old Kayla, ran for UNO and then took some time off from school and track.

“I thought I was retired. But I love to run and with all the support from my family and all my friends at Doane, I was convinced to come back and try again.”

Nebraska Wesleyan’s Chris Wolf broke the meet record in the men’s 400 and led the Prairie Wolves to a 1-3-5 finish in the event.

“I saw our milers (Logan Watley and Kris Kratz) go 1-2, that I got so pumped up to run the 400,” he said. “A month ago, I was running a second slower but Coach (Ted) Bulling has our workouts set to make us peak at the right time. All our 400-meter guys are cutting times down, so what we did was not completely unexpected.”

 Wesleyan was runner-up in both team competitions.

Scott Van Cura of Hastings was named the top male athlete after winning the shot put and weight throw, and Abby Schlueter of Doane was named the outstanding female athlete after winning the long jump and triple jump.

Doane sprinter Paulvince Obuon won the 60 in a meet record and won the 200 in an NAIA national-qualifying time.

Doane also counted on junior sprinter Regan Carlstom for a record-setting victory in the women’s 60.

Concordia’s Michael Saalfeld won the 800, likely becoming the first place-kicker to take a GPAC track running title.

“I’ve always run and I’ve always been a kicker,” said Saalfeld, an Aquinas graduate. “It helps to have some speed in football because I’ve had to chase down a guy who blocked one of my field-goal kicks and every once in awhile I have to stop a punt return.

“I know a lot of kickers are good athletes, but you don’t see many of them running the 800 or the mile,” he said. Saalfeld’s winning time of 1:52.96 was just four-tenths off the meet record but earned him a spot in the NAIA national meet.

Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or khambleton@journalstar.com.