Dac Championships
February 22nd & 23rd, 2008

Goetz caps solid first day for Beavers

SPEARFISH, S.D. — Minot State University's Cody Goetz put the icing on the cake for a solid first day of competition by taking second in the pole vault at the 2008 Dakota Athletic Conference indoor track and field championships here Friday.

“It was a great first day,” MSU head coach Stu Melby said. “I think we had one point last year after the first day for the men and four for the women. Everyone has done a good job so far and we have great energy from the rest of the team. We set quite a few PRs (personal records) and everybody was getting jacked up because of the them.”

Goetz cleared 4.04 meters in the pole vault, setting a personal record by about four inches. Teammate Tim Caldwell finished in seventh.

The day was also marked by the solid performace by MSU's Jenny Castro in the pentathlon, scoring 2,521 to take third place. She set an eight second PR in the 800 and a 6-inch personal best in the high jump.

“We were very happy with how Jenny performed on the first day,” Melby said. “She is in fifth after the hurdles and moved up to fourth after the high jump. She moved up to third after the final event, the 800 meters.”

The men's heptathalon has Ulysses Dalton in second after the first day of competition. The heptathlon spans both days of the meet. MSU's Eric Sheppard is in second and Goetz is ninth, but has his best events on the second day, including the pole vault.

“It goes first thing in the morning,” Melby said. “The guys start the day off and then the individual events are to follow.”

Other MSU placers after the first day were Amanda Towle, fourth in the 5,000 meters (21 minutes, 33.62 seconds) and Kristen Wiebe, fifth in the 5,000 (21:43.67). Julie Williams was fifth in the weight throw with a heave of 13.52 meters, while Casey Seltvedt was ninth (10.69) and Mel Barbour was 11th (8.26). Gino Maxi and Kyle Kimbrough were ninth and 11th respectively in the men's weight throw, as Maxi (12.31 meters) and Kimbrough (11.18) both set PRs.

Record setting day for Minot State

SPEARFISH, S.D. — Minot State University's Cody Goetz and Ulysses Dalton each set school records to help the Beavers men's track and field team to a solid fourth-place finish at the Dakota Athletic Conference indoor track and field championships here Saturday.

Goetz cleared 15-foot-0 1/4 in the pole vault during the heptathlon competition to take the record. Dalton's record was also in the heptathlon as he finished with 4,299 points overall for the record. Dalton's points put him in 13th place nationally heading into the DAC championships and the top 16 in the country qualify for the NAIA meet.

“We will have to see in the next couple of days if that holds up,” MSU head coach Stu Melby said. “We will have to see how the other conference meets went. It would be nice to have four competitors qualify for the NAIA meet.”

Melby was extremely happy with his team's overall performance. Both the men's and women's teams finished in fourth place in their respective meets and the MSU men scored 55 points better than last year's meet.

“I think we had 19 for the two days so this was great,” he said. “I am really happy with how we competed and with the team support and intensity. That's what we have been trying to build and get going here. This is a great boost heading into the outdoor season.”

Both Dalton and Goetz had some problems to overcome during their heptathlons as Dalton, who finished third in the event, suffered a minor injury to a leg during Friday's long jump portion and Goetz, who finished fifth with 4,207 points, had to run the 55-meter hurdles during his pole vault.

“Ulysses had some trouble, but was able to gut it out,” Melby said. “Cody cleared 14-11 and had to run the 55 hurdles. They gave him six minutes to rest. He didn't finish on misses. He cleared 15-0 1/4 and stopped.”

Also having a solid outing for the men was Drew Hysjulien. Hysjulien won the high jump with a leap of 6-feet-6 and qualified for the NAIA meet. He also finished fourth in the triple jump (46-2 1/2) improving his qualifying mark in that event.

MSU's Johnny Lester was fourth in the 55 (6.60 seconds), Julius Ceasar fifth in the 200 (23.06), Devin Hiller fifth in the 400 (51.04) and Dalton was seventh in the 55 hurdles (8.40). MSU was second and third in the 800 and 1,600 meter relays respectively.

On the women's side, Alissa Close was the highest individual finisher as she was third in the triple jump with a 24-8 1/2, a season's best. Close was eighth in the long jump. Amanda Warnett placed fourth in the 400 (1:2.14), Jenny Castro was fifth in the shot put (40-2 1/4) and eighth in the 55 hurdles (10.88), Sam Rogers was sixth in the 800 with a 2:31.60; Chelsey Lazier was seventh in the 55 (.8.06) and 10th in the 200 (29.35) with two season's best marks, Jill Lockie tied for seventh in the high jump (4-11) and Lauren Dietrich was ninth in the mile at 6:00.02.

“We competed hard,” Melby said. “It was nice to see our fifth-year seniors Jenny Castro and Drew Hysjulien do well in the (final DAC indoor meet) and we had two freshmen Jill Lockie and Ulysses Dalton do well.”

— Daily News Staff