The Central College men’s track and field team is No. 4 in the first week of Division III U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association outdoor power rankings. The women’s squad is listed at the No. 12 spot.
The Dutch men are the only Iowa Conference school in the top 25. Indoor champion North Central College (Ill.) holds the No. 5 spot. League contender Wartburg College is pegged at No. 1 on the women’s side.
The men captured the team trophy at the 11-team Central Invitational Saturday with 147 points. In addition to two relay victories and three individual titles, the Dutch had three national qualifiers. The 4×100 relay squad of Trevor Veach, Logan Danko, Kyle Wood and Allen Scovel finished with a time of 41.76 seconds, winning the event and surpassing the NCAA-provisional qualifying mark of 41.95 seconds.
Competing as part of a smaller squad at the Washington Univ. (Mo.) Invitational, Ethan Miller and Kurtis Brondyke went one-two in the decathlon posting NCAA-automatic qualifying marks. Miller won four of seven events, compiling a career-best score of 6,973 points. Brondyke followed with 6,785 points.
The women took second with 93 points at the 11-team field Central Invitational, winning two events. Central had two qualifiers at the meet in Missouri. Senior Jill Ziskovsky won the heptathlon title and automatically qualified for the national meet with 4,603 points. Caitlin Wilson was a provisional qualifier in the same event with 4,283 points.
Miller and Ziskovsky were tabbed the Iowa Conference men’s and women’s field event athletes of the week and Wood received men’s track events recognition.
The Dutch travel to St. Louis, Mo., for the Washington Univ. Select Meet Friday and Saturday.