Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
Championship Page
 
GRINNELL, Iowa – Monmouth College goes for its 18th Midwest Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship in the last 19 years at the 2019 meet this weekend. St. Norbert College is hosting with events starting at 12:30 p.m. on Friday and 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
 
A pair of Indoor All-America throwers in John Hintz and Joe Krall leads the Scots. Hintz and Krall finished fifth and sixth in the weight throw respectively and enter the outdoor conference meet ranked first and second in the hammer throw and the shot put. Hintz also leads the league in the discus followed by teammate Drew Thaxton.
 
Knox College first-year Austin Rauch also earned All-America honors indoors in the high jump. Rauch has had a terrific start to his collegiate career as he set program records, won the MWC Indoor high jump, and now heads to the outdoor meet as the only athlete to jump over two meters. In early April, Rauch cleared 2.05m at Millikin for a new Prairie Fire record.  
 
Rauch and teammate Yohane Griffin will take on a trio of Scots in the long jump. Monmouth’s Darius Williams leads the conference with a jump of 6.98m followed by Rauch’s 6.84m and Griffin’s 6.78m. The Scots Seth Andersen is only .02 meters back at 6.79m just ahead of teammate Josh Gross.
 
Moving to the track, Cornell College’s Mason Wicker and Austin Bach have had some great battles with Lawrence University’s Josh Janusiak over the trio’s careers. The three seniors will race for an MWC title for one final time Saturday in the 5,000. Wicker comes in with the seventh fastest time in Division III at 14:24.66 while Bach and Janusiak are separated by six seconds.
 
Janusiak is the defending MWC 10,000 Champion and this season’s time of 30:28.80 again ranks him first. Last year’s runner-up and fellow Viking, Joe Kortenhof, ranks second at 31:01.43 with a pair of Foresters on his heels. Lake Forest College’s Jorge Villanueva and Philip Wilson are third (31:35.33) and fourth (32:00.09) entering the conference meet.
 
The Rams’ Wicker and Bach also hold the two fastest times in the 1500 as they look to sweep the event for the second straight year. Wicker is the lone MWC runner under four minutes so far this season as just last weekend he ran 3:55.96 while Bach ran 4:02.49. The duo’s teammate Caleb Wilson is fifth with a time of 4:06.63. A mere .41 seconds separates the third through fifth ranked runners as Tate Heiple of Monmouth ran 4:06.22 and Grinnell College’s John Lennon is just behind at 4:06.38.
 
The Pioneers and Rams will also battle in the 800-meters as Cornell’s Wilson is sandwiched between Grinnell’s Zach Willis and Declan O’Reilly. Dropping down another lap to the 400-meter, the top two finishers from the MWC Indoor Championship hold the two fastest times outdoors this season.
 
Ripon College’s Andrew Fuhrmann won indoors and ran 49.15 outdoors with a pair of Blueboys close behind. Illinois College’s Brett Peifer and Chris Moore also went under 50 seconds with times of 49.77 and 49.91 respectively.
 
Fuhrmann and Moore also hold the second and third best times in the 200 behind Monmouth’s Stone Darrow’s conference leading 21.98. Stone claimed the title of fastest man during indoors by winning the 60-meter dash and looks to hold on to that title outdoors as he enters with the best 100-meter time of 10.78.
 
Adding hurdles to the track doesn’t slow down St. Norbert’s Sam Stelloh as he ran a league best 15.02 in the 110 hurdles at the Kansas Relays and is second in the 400 hurdles with a time of 55.70. Beloit College’s Jose Gutierrez, the reigning champion in the event, holds the fastest time this season at 53.49.
 
A Buccaneer also looks to take the 3,000 steeplechase title as senior Dan Arkes will battle rookie Riley Dulin of Monmouth. Dulin leads the conference with a time of 10:06.00 with Arkes just behind at 10:07.25.
 
Arkes’ teammate Scott Fuchs leads the javelin by nearly four meters with a school record throw of 59.92 while another Buc, Matthew Miller, ranks fourth in the pole vault behind St. Norbert’s Schermacher brothers. Jaxsen leads the conference with a school record clearance of 4.60m while Max is second at 4.30m.
 
The 2019 MWC Championship starts on Friday with the women’s hammer throw at 12:30 p.m. and the 10,000 on the track at 2:00 p.m. Find the full event schedule at the championship page.