Stevens takes steeplechase title as Lawrence men, women take seventh at MWC Championships

BELOIT, Wis. — Sam Stevens won the title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to lead the Lawrence University track teams at the Midwest Conference Championships on Saturday at Strong Stadium.

Stevens won the title with a time of 9:34.42 to beat Carroll University’s Dakota Pruitt by nearly three seconds. Teammate Cameron Davies raced to a fourth-place finish in 9:47.58.

Stevens also grabbed a third-place finish in the 5,000 on Saturday with a time of 1:34.64. Stevens wasn’t able to defend his championship in the 1,500 meters on Friday and took fifth place in 4:00.64. Teammate Dan Thoresen was sixth in 4:03.42.

The Lawrence men finished seventh with 54 points, and Monmouth College won the title with 201. The Lawrence women also placed seventh with 39 points, and the Scots also won that team title with 244.5 points.

The other top finisher on the men’s side was freshman JP Ranumas, who grabbed second in the 110 hurdles in 15.49 seconds. Karston Anderson of Monmouth edged Ranumas by .18 seconds for the title.

Lawrence had two throwers place in the top five in the discus. Spencer Swick grabbed third with a throw of 142-4, and Nick Craker was fifth with a toss of 137-4.

Others placing on the men’s side were: freshman Ben Bard in the 400 hurdles (sixth, 1:00.38), sophomore Kyle Dockery in the 10,000 (sixth, 33:29.10), Tyler Herman in the 400 (eighth, 51.67) and the 1,600 relay team (eighth, 3:34.51).

Rose Tepper took second place in the high jump to pace the Lawrence women on Friday. Tepper, a former conference champion in the high jump, was the runner-up with a jump of 5 feet, 5 inches. Monmouth College’s Emily Tysma won the event with a jump of 5-7.25.

Freshmen Sofie Yang placed in three events, taking fourth in the pole vault with a height of 10-0.75, sixth in the 400 hurdles in 1:08.88 and sixth in the 100 hurdles in 16.46 seconds.

Anna Bolgrien wasn’t able to defend her title in the 400 hurdles and took fourth in 1:06.12. She also grabbed seventh in the 100 hurdles in 16:52. Also placing for the Vikings were the 400 relay (fifth, 51.40), the 1,600 relay (fifth, 4:14.26), Liza Girsova in the 100 meters (seventh, 13.03) and Genna Matt in the hammer throw (eighth, 121-7.25).

Results