NORTH NEWTON, Kan. -  Our Thresher track and field team participated in their 3rd KCAC indoor track and field competition in the Ahearn arena in Manhattan, Kansas. There are 14 athletes from our team who competed in the two day meet which took place Friday February 13, and Saturday February 14.

In an interview with head coach Kent Allshouse, he stated that "This is more of an assessment meet to see where everybody is and see where we need to improve." The Bethel track athletes have simply not been practicing for very long at this point in the season.

There are 22 events at this meet and our team will be competing in around nine of them. Allshouse did not want to send many athletes whom he did not think were ready for the competition. This was because he did not want to have any injuries that could be detrimental to the team come the main season. We are at somewhat of a disadvantage because we do not have an indoor facility to train in, while some of the other schools such as Friends and Kansas Wesleyan do.

The Thresher men placed tenth out of the ten teams, and the Thresher women tied for ninth out of ten teams. The Friends University Falcons men's and women's teams each collected first place overall at the indoor meet.

Rashe Boynton, a junior from Miami, Fla., led the way for the Thresher women's track team. She placed fifth in the 60 meter dash with a time of 7.99 seconds. Boynton also competed in the 200 meter dash and the long jump. She placed ninth in the 200 meter dash with a time of 27.11 seconds, and she jumped a distance of 4.92 meters in the long jump, good enough for eight place.

Other top competitors for the women were sophomore Katelyn Fatten (SO/Riverside,Cali.), who placed ninth in the 1000 meter race with a time of 3:26.72, and freshmen Katie Neira, who threw a distance of 8.72 meters in shot put for tenth place.

The Bethel women's team's group of Boynton, sophomore Emily Moore (SO/Pretty Prairie, Kan.), freshmen Hannah Cebrun, and freshmen Kendra Samuels also placed ninth in 4 X 400 meter relay. They finished with a time of 4:42.64.

Samuels, Moore, and Cebrun also all participated in the 600 meter race. Other Bethel contestants include freshmen DrewAnne Gatlin and senior Regina Hafner (SR/Panora, Iowa), who participated in the 60 meter dash and the 3000 meter run, respectively.

The top finisher for the Bethel men's team, Tyler Kaufman (SO/Moundridge, Kan.), a sophomore from Moundridge, Kan. He placed tenth in the triple jump, going a distance 12.19 meters. Fellow Bethel sophomore, Matthew Rodenberg, was right behind Kaufman in the same event, placing eleventh with a jump of 11.91 meters.

Rounding out the Thresher men's participants were freshmen Steven Jones and freshmen Tony Waggler, who both competed in the 60 meter dash, and also freshmen Ben Able and junior Daniel Kirk (JR/Minneola, Kan.), who both participated in the long jump.

Being early in the season, leaves lots of room for improvement for both our men and women. "I felt very out of shape, but I also felt that even though most of us weren't in the kind of shape we want to be in, we did very well," reported Moore. 

Article Submitted by Preston Gaptor and Daniel Ratzlaff of the Collegian