McKelvey beats record, Janovy throws for first

The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Austin, Texas and Wayne, Neb. to compete in the Texas Relays and the Wildcat Classic over the weekend.

The Coyotes kicked off the second half of their season with the outdoor competition portion.

Assistant coach Tyler Custis said the talented, young group performed well in the non-ideal conditions.

“We had a school record throw in the men’s discus and we won the women’s discus,” he said. “Danielle (Waldner) was second in the shot put. She’s one of the leading freshmen in the country.”

Waldner said she was disappointed in herself because she thought she would do better.

“It was kind of a struggle in those conditions,” she said. “It was difficult to get throws out with the wind.”

Waldner said the first few meets of the outdoor season have been consistent so far.

Senior Breanna Janovy took the women’s discus title with a career-best mark of 156-8, which ranks as the best mark in the Summit League so far this outdoor season, while junior Kyle McKelvey set a new state collegiate men’s outdoor shot put record.

McKelvey won the shot put with a mark of 59-5 1/2, breaking the previous state record of 59-4¼ he set at the Summit League Outdoor Track and Field Championships last May.

McKelvey said it was a great start to the outdoor season.

“I’m just hoping to build off of that each week,” he said. “I want to bump that (mark) up each week.”

In preparation for the meet, McKelvey said he cut down on his training a bit and will continue to work on consistency for the next meet.

“The main goal is to make it to the second round of the national championship and that will take about a foot further than what I threw last week,” he said.

Senior Alex Hohenthaner placed first in the men’s 5000-meter run with a time of 15:29.89, while sophomore Isaac Allen placed second with  15:31.31 at the March 29 meet.

Sophomore Teivaskie Lewin placed first in men’s 110 hurdles with a time of 14.26 in the finals and first-year Tyler Frank received second place in the men’s high jump with a distance of 2.00 meters.

On the women’s side, junior Amber Ewers came in second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.17 and third in the 200 meter dash with 25.97.

Senior Megan Hilson placed second in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:50.30, while senior Tansha Clarke came in second in the 100-meter hurdles with a final time of 14.94.

Head women’s coach Lucky Huber said the group performed well despite the poor weather.

“This is the time of the year that we get a chance to go out and get a little competition in to get ready for the championship,” Huber said.

Custis said the athletes are progressing.

“All-in-all we were in the top of every event in the throws, and that’s where we want to be,” he said.

The teams will be in action again for the Dakota Duals in Yankton April 4-5.

Photo: First-year Kara Homandberd jumps hurdles during practice March 31 in the DakotaDome. (Malachi Petersen/The Volante)