Harper Men Excel at Augustana

Several Hawks set PR's and qualified for nationals at Augustana. (Jim Cummins)

 

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The Harper College men's track and field team had several athletes set PR's as well as qualify for nationals with excellent performances at the Augustana Early Spring Opener.

John Walker (/Huntley) set PR's in both the 100 (11.63 seconds) and 200-meter (23.88 seconds) dashes and finished as the team's top sprinter in both events. In the 400-meter dash, Tom Rohn (/Cary) took third place in a time of 51.99 seconds.  Junious Matlock () continued his improvement in the 800-meter run with a PR time of 2:12.27.

At 1500 meters, all seven Harper athletes who competed in the event set PR's, led by Jhoan Lino (León, Guanajuato/Streamwood) (4:11.82) and Zach Stella (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) (4:17.48), whose times were both good enough to qualify for the national meet. Juan Barajas (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Schaumburg) (4:28.08), John Majerus (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Elk Grove) (4:30.55), Sebastian Ramirez (Lima, Peru/Palatine) (4:31.79), Vince Greco (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Elk Grove) (4:38.15) and Connor Williams (/Wauconda) (4:38.76) all ran strong races as well.

Hurdler Daniel Lim (Schaumburg, Ill./Streamwood) qualified for nationals in the 110-meter hurdles (16.47 seconds) for a second straight year, and Ernest Downing () qualified for nationals with a career-best time of 59.23 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles. In the 3000-meter steeplechase, Nick Modlin (Wheeling, Ill./Wheeling) (10:20.90) and Brennan Albuck (/Hoffman Estates) (10:28.60) took first and third place while also setting PR's and qualifying for nationals.

The relay teams also had a productive day as the 4x100m relay team of Walker, Rohn, Max Anderson (/Cary Grove) and Downing took second place with a national-qualifying time of 44.55 seconds. Anderson, Rohn, Majerus and Downing captured third place in the 4x400m relay with a PR time of 3:34.09.

Thrower Will Botefuhr (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect) set PR's in both the hammer (116'2") and javelin (127' 10") in his collegiate debut.

The Hawks took second place as a team with 102 points. Host Augustana took first place with 472 points, and Ashford University finished third with 60 points.

Harper is back in action this upcoming Saturday at the College of DuPage Invite.