NAPERVILLE — The men’s outdoor track and field season continued last week with College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) programs competing at several regional meets and recording multiple conference-leading and nationally ranked performances. 
 
Student-athletes from around the conference produced strong results between Thursday and Saturday, including event victories, team titles and additions to the NCAA Division III national performance lists.
 
Hammering It Home in Rock Island
Augustana won the team title at the 81st Viking Olympics last Friday, scoring 163.5 points in an 11-team field. CCIW Student-Athlete of the Week Landon Wierenga led the effort with a hammer throw of 59.66 meters, a mark that leads the CCIW, ranks fifth in NCAA Division III and stands fourth in program history. He also placed second in the discus at 48.10 meters, which ranks 25th nationally. 
 
Augustana also placed four competitors in the top six of the hammer throw, with Magnus Wells finishing at 51.31 meters, Evan Santilli at 48.29 meters and Micah Bischoff at 47.60 meters. On the track, Tyreke Fortney won both the 100-meter dash in 10.66 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 21.76 seconds, while AJ Banks won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.64 seconds and the 400-meter hurdles in 55.34 seconds.
 
Reed Between the Lines for Record Sprints
North Central posted several top performances at the Wheaton Invitational last Tuesday. Randy Reed – also a CCIW Student-Athlete of the Week – won both sprint events, recording a conference-leading time of 10.62 seconds in the 100-meter dash and a league-best 21.38 seconds in the 200-meter dash. His 100-meter time ranks 34th nationally and fourth in program history, while his 200-meter mark ranks 18th in Division III. 
 
Travis Hoffman won the 400-meter hurdles in 54.56 seconds in his first appearance in the event. Jayden Leise added a win in the triple jump at 13.90 meters, and Ben Balboa won the discus with a season-best mark of 49.57 meters as North Central claimed four of the top five places in that event.
 
Rose Wins Throws
Carthage won the Wisconsin Private College Championships last Thursday behind strong performances in the field and distance events. Tyler Rose won the shot put with a mark of 15.64 meters and the hammer throw at 55.02 meters. Those marks currently rank Rose ninth nationally in the hammer throw and 24th nationally in the shot put, while also leading the conference in both events. 
 
In the distance events, Harlan Matson won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a conference-leading 9:35.91, followed by teammates Andrew Schaer in 9:41.23 and Luke Davey in 9:54.23. Joey Kehoe led a Carthage sweep of the top four spots in the 10,000-meter run with a winning time of 35:26.84. Camron Foster also won the high jump at 1.95 meters, and Nick DeLuca took first in the pole vault by clearing 4.05 meters.
 
The Thursday Throwdown Thrills
Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan both competed at the IC Thursday Throwdown in Jacksonville last Thursday. For Millikin, Aaron Mohr won the 800-meter run in 1:58.58, followed by teammate Jude Toft in second at 1:58.72. Aiden Pacunas won the 5,000-meter run in 16:28.89, while Jack Fisher finished second in 16:42.84. Emmanuel Nwatu placed second in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.89 seconds, a time that ranks fifth in Millikin history. 
 
For Illinois Wesleyan, Daniel Nash recorded a personal-best throw of 14.12 meters to place fifth in the shot put, and Bobby Mogged placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.77 seconds.
 
Relaying Success
Illinois Wesleyan also competed last Saturday at the Huntsman Family Invitational hosted by Wabash and recorded victories in both relay events. The Titans’ 4x100-meter relay team of Joe Freedman, Vincent Enoch, Cameron Rask and Amir Byrd finished first in 42.80 seconds. The 4x400-meter relay team of Carson Green, Noah Sadowski, Alex Maas and Dylan Hodges also placed first with a time of 3:21.14. 
 
Individually, Rask finished second in the 100-meter dash with a personal-best 10.98 seconds. In the field events, Green won the long jump with a mark of 6.68 meters and Justin Moon won the high jump after clearing a personal-best 1.87 meters. Zach Marquardt added a personal-best time of 9:56.84 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
 
National Marks and Conference Leaders
The recent competitions produced several changes to the conference performance lists. North Central’s Randy Reed now holds the top CCIW marks in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, while teammate BJ Sorg leads the 1,500-meter run at 3:56.84. 
 
Augustana’s AJ Banks leads the conference in both hurdle events with times of 14.64 in the 110-meter hurdles and 55.34 in the 400-meter hurdles. Carthage’s Harlan Matson holds the top conference mark in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 9:35.91, while Tyler Rose leads the shot put at 15.64 meters. 
 
Augustana’s Landon Wierenga remains the conference leader in the hammer throw at 59.66 meters. Several of those marks also place CCIW student-athletes among the top 50 performers in NCAA Division III.
 
The Road Ahead: Chicagoland and Beyond
Conference teams are scheduled to compete at several meets over the coming days. From Thursday through Saturday, Elmhurst, Carthage, North Central, Wheaton and North Park are among the programs set to compete at the Chicagoland Outdoor Championships hosted by Elmhurst. 
 
On Friday, Carroll will divide its squad between the UW-Oshkosh Outdoor Invitational and the Beloit Relays, while Augustana and a portion of the North Central roster will compete at the UW-Platteville Invitational. On Saturday, Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan are scheduled to take part in the Greenville Select.