Career-bests, event championships highlight Huskies day at Holst Invitational

Saturday, April 17

St. Paul, MN

11:00 a.m.

St. Cloud State

Holst Invitational

Parker Buske won her third-straight Triple Jump to open her Outdoor Season as SCSU enjoyed another outstanding day at the Holst Invitational

Photo by: Thomas Breach

Career-bests, event championships highlight Huskies day at Holst Invitational

4/17/2021 6:40:00 PM | Women's Track & Field

Six Huskies posted career-bests in their events, one set a meet record and two athletes finished on top of the podium as St. Cloud State Women's Track & Field competed in a 10-team field at the Holst Invitational on Saturday.

"It was a beautiful day to compete at Concordia," said Kettenhofen, "Across most of the event groups we took advantage of the weather and had a few Personal Bests, Season Bests, and event wins throughout the day. It's always nice to be able to say that after a meet."

St. Cloud State's competition included NSIC foes Minnesota State, Winona State, Minnesota-Duluth, Concordia-St. Paul, Upper Iowa and Bemidji State.

"Nice to see our group take another step forward and compete well on consecutive weekends," Kettenhofen continued, "Seeing conference schools like we did today offers up very strong competition and it's a good test to see where we are at 4 weeks or so out from the conference championships."

Field Events

The Huskies started out strong in the Long Jump as Emelia Burris (5.79m), Faith Lubner (5.49m) and Parker Buske (5.37m) finished two-three-four and Maya Taylor (5.03m) joined them in the top eight. Burris' furthest leap set a new meet record, breaking the former mark of 5.58m. Emma Gauert posted a new career-best in the Pole Vault, covering 3.35m on two attempts while taking second place. Grace Elsenpeter placed right behind Gauert in fourth.

Dominique Buechel was the Huskies' lone thrower at the competition, finishing fifth in the Hammer Throw with a 47.66m toss. She followed up her top-five finish by winning the Discus with a mark of 44.74m on her last throw of the finals, giving her back-to-back Discus wins after taking first in Winona last weekend.

Buske won her third-straight Triple Jump to open the Outdoor Season with a mark of 11.65m, while Taylor finished in second by leaping 11.46m. SCSU dominated the top-ten of the High Jump, as Claire Shea finished second, Shantelle Des Marais cleared a career-best 1.57m to take third, Julia Rowles landed seventh and Jocelyn Johnson rounded out the ten best competitors in the event.

Track Events

Beginning with the 100 Meter Hurdles, Faith Lubner (14.72s) and Gracie Elsenpeter (14.84s) qualified for the Finals with a three-four finish in the Preliminaries, with Elsenpeter's prelim time giving her a new career-best. Lubner went on to finish third in the Finals with a career-best 14.56s run. Clara Welhouse kept the Huskies' career-best run going by PR'ing in the 1500 Meter Run with a 5:00.25 fourth-place finish. Isabella Kraft finished in the top-eight in the 3000 Meter Steeplechase, then Burris gave SCSU a top-six 100 Meter Dash finish.

Kaylee Gessay provided St. Cloud State with another top-six finish in the 400 Meter Dash. Makayla Rice placed third in the 400 Meter Hurdles with a 1:05.62 career-best finish while Karla Encarnacion joined her in the top-six. In the 800 Meter Run, Cheresa Bouley (2:19.91) and Leighten Fischer (2:21.64) finished fourth and seventh respectively. Katherine Todd wrapped up the individual performances with a second-place finish in the 5000 Meter Run, running the 5K in 18:15.66.

The Huskies' 4x400 Meter Relay team of Cassidy Lackovic, Johnson, Encarnacion and Bouley placed fourth with a 4:11.81 finish.

Up Next for SCSU

St. Cloud State will continue their Outdoor season next Saturday, April 24 at the River City Rumble in Winona, Minnesota.

"We have another great opportunity next weekend with a meet back down at Winona State," commented Kettenhofen, "We will get to see quite a few conference schools again and have a chance to take another big step forward as we gear up for Championship Season."