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Since my freshman year at Hamline, I have been competing in the Multi events. At my first pentathlon, I placed 10th at the MIAC Indoor Conference Championships. I scored a very low 2,527 points in the five-event competition, which consists of the 55-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, and the 800 meters. If you told me back then that I would be a two-time MIAC Champion in the pentathlon, I probably would have laughed in your face.

I could run the hurdles in a decent time and high jump well, but I could barely throw 25 feet in the shot put, jump 14 feet in the long jump, and we don’t even want to talk about the 800. I hated every second of the competition and while I was running that first 800, I can still recall thinking, ‘I am never going to do this again.’ However, I decided to stick with it. Not just because I didn’t want to quit, but also because I have a problem saying ‘no’ to people.

My sophomore year was a breakthrough year. I went to nationals in the heptathlon, which includes the same five events as the pentathlon plus the 200-meter dash and the javelin. Ever since, the heptathlon has been an event that I love to hate and I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything but the multi-events.

This year’s conference pentathlon was very meaningful to me. Not only was it my senior year and I was the defending champion, but I finished a disappointing second at last year’s MIAC heptathlon and I felt I had much to prove. Going into the pentathlon last week, I had high expectations of breaking my school record in the event and I also realized that the conference record wasn’t out of my reach either.

Due to the snowstorm, the meet was delayed, but this was good for me because it gave me more time to warm-up, which usually helps me out. I finished my warm-up, and stood by the blocks ready for the first event of the day, the 55 hurdles. I finished with my second best time ever, 8.74. Next, was the high jump, where I jumped my personal record of 1.57 meters (5’1 1/2). Shot put warm-ups were going well, and I was excited for this event because I could gain points over the rest of the field. I threw 10.57 meters, which was also a personal record and over three feet further than the nearest competitor. Long jump was next, an event that I struggle in. My goal was to jump five meters, but I fell short of that, jumping only 4.84 meters. This meant that second place was only about 70 points behind me, but at this point, I was within reach of St. Olaf’s Trostrud Center record and if I ran a good 800, I would come close to the conference record as well.

With a half hour between each event, the 30-minute break between the long jump and the 800 is the worst. Nobody likes running this race because not only is it painful, but after doing four other events, your body doesn’t have much left. Compared to what I have done in the past, I changed my game plan a little bit for the race. I didn’t want to go out too fast and not be able to finish strong. I ran my first two laps right on pace, but I then fell off a little. However, I was still able to finish with a time of 2:34.83.

When all was said and done, I finished with a score of 3271. This was good enough for first place, my personal record, the school record, and the Tostrud Center record. However, I fell short of the conference record by only 46 points.

After the multi-competition, I spent the next two days of the conference meet competing in the open 55 hurdles, open high jump, and the 4x200...this was an easy two days in the eyes of a multier!