March 05, 2011

Pipers take second place at MIAC Championships

The Pipers lost to the host Tommies by just eight points, similar to last year's seven-point margin. St. Thomas tallied 166.0 points to Hamline's 158.0 points.

At the conference championships, the first three finishers are All-MIAC and places four through six are honorable mention all-conference. The top eight finishers score points in the meet standings for the team.

Christian Willman (So., Rosemount, Minn.), Christian Swanberg (Sr., Lindstrom, Minn.), DJ Weil (So., Chaska, Minn.), and Tyson Molitor (Sr., Belgrade, Minn.) ended the meet by placing second in the 1600-meter relay in 3:23.17.

Prior to competing in the meet-ending relay, Swanberg had a pair strong sprints at the 200-meter distance. He was the third leg in the 800-meter relay that opened the day's events on the track, taking the lead while he had the baton.

Swanberg and his relay teammates set a new school record of 1:29.88. Orlando Sanchez (Jr., North St. Paul, Minn.), Dan Holmgren (Sr., Andover, Minn.), and Weil were also on that relay.

Swanberg ran the 200-meter dash between the relays, winning the championship in 22.67.

Molitor then finished second in the 600-yard dash in 1:14.45.

Amani Lee (Fy., Minneapolis, Minn.) opened the day's field events by placing seventh in the high jump, clearing 6-2 1/4 (1.89 meters).

Hamline then had three athletes score points in the shot put, led by Derall King (Sr., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) in second with a throw of 48-4 3/4 (14.75 meters). Blake Springman (Sr., Adrian, Minn.) was fifth at 46-10 1/4 (14.28 meters) and Brennan McKeag (Jr., Lakeville, Minn.) was seventh with a put of 46-4 3/4 (14.14 meters).

Three Pipers also finished in the top eight in the 3,000-meter run. Crossing the line in third was Jack Diechert (Jr., Golden Valley, Minn.) in 8:43.01. Ellis Richardson (Jr., Roseville, Minn.) was fifth in 8:44.37 and Andrew Johnson (Sr., Andover, Minn.) finished eighth in 8:51.04.

In the 1,000-meter run, Ian Campbell (Jr., Blooming Prairie, Minn.) finished third in 2:32.78 and Brendan Ruter (So., New London, Minn.) was eighth in 2:36.32.