The Collegian

Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Andrew Dodson Freshman Kelby Rosengarten leaps over the first hurdle at the Findlay Open last weekend where he placed fifth.

Media Credit: Andrew Dodson Junior Aaron Falk competed with the elite last Saturday.

Sophomore Marta Scheiwe and freshman Tim Jagielski led the Charger indoor track and field team last Saturday at the Findlay Open, in Findlay, Ohio, and junior Aaron Falk pitted himself against many of the world's top Olympic weight throwers.

Falk was only one of two college-level athletes who competed in the Men's Elite Weight Throw, a special competition which included Olympic hammer throwers A.G. Kruger (USA) and Libor Charfreitag (Slovakia). Both Kruger and Charfreitag competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games; Charfreitag took fourth in Athens and sixth in Beijing.

Falk said Charfreitag is the best weight thrower in the world and that throwing against such Olympic talent was both exciting and beneficial for him.

Falk's heave of 61-11 feet finished eighth ahead of his fellow college competitor but behind Charfreitag (80 feet) and Kruger (77-06 feet) who took first and second respectively.

"Kruger gave me a little technical advice," Falk said. "He told me Beijing was pretty exciting, but the main thing is to stay relaxed. They were both really humble about their accomplishments."

As Falk tested his strength at an Olympic scale, Scheiwe took first in both the 200 meter and the 400m dashes with both times just shy of the provisionally qualifying mark. In the 200m dash sophomore Circe Cansino finished second with a time of 26.97.

Jagielski hit a lifetime best in the mile crossing the finish line alone at 4:16 - about four seconds ahead of the second place finisher.

Addressing many of his top distance runners, head coach Bill Lundberg referred to Jagielski's performance as "Jared Krout-like" and expects even more to come from the freshman at the conference meet.

Krout was named GLIAC?Runner of the Year his rookie season.

Assistant coach Michael Nikkila said Jagielski's success is due to his intense work ethic and inability to lose lightly.

"[Jagielski] races harder than anyone I've seen," Nikkila said. "He does it with drive, motivation, effort…the guy just hates to lose and he'll do whatever it takes to win - he has such a high pain tolerance!"

Jagielski now holds the fourth best time among all GLIAC runners.

Freshman Amanda Putt provisionally qualified in the women's 800m run taking first place with junior Amy Luke just two seconds behind in second.

Other impressive finishes include junior Katie Hunt and Krout's first-place finishes in the long jump, senior Andrew Dodson's first place in high jump, sophomore Jeff Wysong's 800m run, freshman Kathy Dirksen's first place shot put, sophomore Kelsey Schuler's first-place triple jump and senior Sarah Kauk's second-place pole vault.

The Chargers will continue to impress as the pressures of conference and national meets close in and they travel to Allendale, Mich., for the Grand Rapids Open this weekend - the last meet before the GLIAC Championship.

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