Marquette Twilight Competed Amid Adverse Conditions

April 25, 2009

Marquette Twilight Meet Podcast (Part 1 of 2)

MILWAUKEE -- The Marquette University track and field squad hosted the Marquette Twilight meet Saturday afternoon with both the men and the women capturing team victories.

"The athletes had to deal with some tough conditions this afternoon," said head coach Bert Rogers. "The lightning in the area set us back a little bit with the throwing events early on, but we got it done regardless. I thought the team made the most of the meet with the rough weather."

With scattered thunderstorms in the region during the early afternoon hours, the javelin and other throwing events which were supposed to take place at 1 p.m. were pushed back until the lightning had left the area. Once the storms had subsided the athletes then had to deal with dropping temperatures on the track, leading to uncharacteristic times for this point in the season.

Leading off competition once it was cleared to begin was the men's javelin, which sophomore Jonathan Kusowski won with a launch of 50.97 meters (167 feet, 3 inches), followed in second by former Marquette athlete Tom Sage at 44.92 meters (147-04), who competed unattached. Marquette swept the top three spots in the women's javelin with Kelly Magennis reaching 40.09 meters (131-06), Catherine Benage taking second with 37.57 meters (123-03) and freshman Lauren Benjamin third at 33.94 meters (111-04).

In the women's hammer throw, senior Jessica Ehlen and junior Kelley Corcoran took first and second, respectively with throws of 54.22 meters (177-11) and 47.97 meters (157-04). Jeff Kluge led a group of four MU men in the hammer throw with a distance of 47.16 meters (154-09) for a third place finish.

Registering a BIG EAST Championships qualifying standard in the shot put was junior Rachel Thiel with a second place finish in the event. Eric Matuszewski, competing unattached, won the men's shot put with a toss of 14.54 meters (47-08.50), barely edging out freshman David Carbajal at 14.52 meters (47-07.75).

When competition commenced at the Melvin "Bus" Shimek Memorial Track & Field Facility with the jumping events, MU once again captured event victories with Erynn James (1.62 meters, 5-03.75) and Nick Byom (1.93 meters, 6-04.00) in their respective high jump fields and Shawn McLarney (6.67 meters, 21-10.75) in the long jump.

On the track, Katlin Millin and Stephanie Grant finished 1-2 in the 400 meters and Dani Owen finished second in the 800 at 2:23.57 to lead a contingent of four MU women.

The 5,000-meter run saw good finishes by Marquette athletes as Laurie Dalrymple, competing unattached, finished second in 18:14.49, while Amanda Beggs placed third and Carly Windt fifth. On the men's side Scott Mueller captured a victory with a time of 14:52.07. Also finishing the event for MU were Nick Szczech, Patrick Keeley, Andrew Craig and Keith Schueller.

Mueller also took second in the 1,500 meters at 4:03.06, ahead of Brice Cleland's 4:07.09.

Finishing just over two seconds shy of the BIG EAST standard in the women's 400-meter hurdles was freshman Jenny Zahn with a time of 1:06.06 to win the event. Michael O'Brien captured a victory on the men's side with a time of 56.09 seconds.

In the men's 400-meter dash, Randey Fisher placed third, Tom Cassady fourth and Eric Meissner fifth. Fisher finished in 50.50 seconds while Cassady and Meissner both crossed in 50.56 seconds to finish just over the BIG EAST standard of 49.04 seconds.

The Golden Eagles will return to action May 1-3 at the BIG EAST Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Villanova, Pa.