The men’s and women’s track teams placed third at the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference meet last weekend, finishing behind Southwestern College in first and Tabor College in second.

“The men were in a close chase for second,” head coach Winston Kenton said. “I’m never satisfied with third, but both teams competed well.”

Kenton also said he was impressed with the score of the women’s team because only nine members competed.

There were a number of first place finishers to help contribute to the team scores. For the women, sophomore Heather Harris won in both the shot put and discus and junior Naomi Hightower in pole vault.

For the men, gold winners included freshman Josh Urban in javelin, senior Max Cox in pole vault and senior Aaron Howell in both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.

Howell’s time of 21.59 seconds in the 200 was the fastest time ever recorded on Southwestern’s Monypenny Track.

Howell was happy with his last year of performance. Looking back on the year, he said the team had fun and was able to compete, and that is what it is all about.

“There were some things that popped up — things that were unexpected,” Howell said.

“Sometimes the weather wouldn’t let us do the workouts we wanted to do. But overall, I think the year went pretty well.”

Howell, Urban and Harris have met the qualifying standards to compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Meet at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Ky., May 26-29.

Kenton expects to take around eight to 10 athletes to the meet. For those who are close to qualifying, there is a last-chance meet at Emporia State University on May 15.

Harris has big expectations for the national meet. With three All-American titles under her belt, earned by placing first through sixth at nationals, she hopes to have two more titles by the end of the season.

“I fell into a slump during the outdoor season,” Harris said. “I did well at the conference meet though and hope to be throwing what I should be by nationals.”

Overall, Kenton said he is impressed with the athletes, and despite the size and lack of numbers on the team, he is looking forward to building up the team for next year. Kenton said he wants depth for each event, meaning at least three to four serious competitors for each event.

“Numbers aren’t everything, but we want to work on building our own dynasty here,” Kenton said. “With the numbers, along with the effort and heart we had this year, I think next year will be even better.”

Kenton said Friends is going to lose a great deal of talent.

“They are not easily replaced and they will be missed,” he said.

Howell said Kenton is good for the program and he sees it going places.

“There is no doubt that he is a good coach,” Howell said. “If the returners and the ones coming in just listen to him, I think they’ll have a heck of a track team.”

Harris agreed that with the up and downs of the season, coach Kenton did a good job of coming in and finishing up the season.

“We were a little scared or you could say extremely worried at times during the season because of the loss of the coach,” Harris said. “We didn’t know when we were going to get one, but coach Kenton is amazing and the best person for the job.”

Kenton wanted to make the point that the team worked hard, and he had a lot of respect for them making it through the season.